


Speed and Direction

by Zeef



Category: Marvel 616, X-Men (Comicverse), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Bisexual Character, Canonical Character Death, Civil War (Marvel), F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, Teenage Drama, Young Avengers: Children's Crusade
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2019-10-11 08:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17443613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeef/pseuds/Zeef
Summary: A fourteen year old Thomas Shepherd is rescued by the X-Men from an anti-mutant experimentation group and is brought to the Xavier School. There, he finds himself helping people, healing from his past, making friends, and perhaps falling in love. Also maybe (accidentally) blows up his school (sorry Dani).





	1. The Depths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first X-Men fic I've written, though I've been writing stories about them in my head since I was a little kid, so I hope I portray everyone well. However, this is not my first Young Avengers fic, though there's nothing I've posted on here.
> 
> Also! This chapter is very different than the rest of the story, due to the changing of perspectives and the shift in events. It's still important to understanding the events afterwards though. I've also written a bunch of chapters ahead, and I'm still working on it. I do not know yet how long it will be. It's probably about five chapters of equal or greater word count.

Everything hurt.

His vision was blurred when he could manage to force his eyes open, and he could feel the darkness encroaching. He knew if he let go now, he wasn’t coming back. That was the point of the torture, after all. If he stopped fighting now, he was going to be like all the empty husks of people that had left this place before him.

But Tommy couldn’t take much more of this. His strength was failing him, his will was crumbling. This machine was squeezing it all out of him.

He let out a final scream of agony as he slipp- _Don’t stop fighting, Thomas._

Tommy was so startled by the sudden voice in his head that he stopped screaming. The pain hadn’t lessen, but he was terribly confused. _We’re coming, don’t give up, Thomas, we’re almost there._ There it was again! Tommy was too hazy and out of it to think of a response to the man speaking in his head, but he obeyed, fighting to remain conscious with what little mental strength he had left. The darkness was still growing in the corners of his vision though, and it was so hard to stay awake.

“Hey hey, kid,” a voice called.

The blurry image of a man with strange glasses appeared in his vision, saying words Tommy was too far gone to hear or comprehend. He said something to someone else before he put his hands on the sides of Tommy’s face, saying something again that he couldn’t understand. Then, the machine stopped, and released, causing Tommy to weakly fall forward onto the man. As he did, the pain and darkness swallowed him whole.

\---

A tip had come in about a week ago that there was something happening out of an old abandoned warehouse in New Jersey. It said that a group claiming to be a school for young mutants was collecting teens and experimenting on them, willing to do whatever it took to make them ‘normal’, even if it left them comatose or dead. The X-Men had, reasonably, found that claim to be disturbing and looked into it, quickly realizing that it was true. They found the location of the warehouse in question and devised a plan to extract any mutants in the building before making sure there was no way they would be able to hurt anyone else there again.

The warehouse was worn down and appeared to be abandoned from the outside. It was away from the rest of the warehouses down the street, with security cameras and other hidden measures to keep people out in the surrounding area. Keeping these things in mind, the X-Men set down by the door, dropped invisibility, and jumped out entirely prepared to fight their way in and out. These guys deserved to know how screwed over they were before the team even walked through the door.

“Kitty, Storm, and Moonstar, find the children where they're being held. Beast, Rogue, Emma, find the room they run the place out of and shut everything down. Wolverine and Cyclops, we'll go down to the depths where they do their worst and rescue any of the children that might be down there. X-Men, move out,” Professor X ordered.

The team followed his command and charged in, taking out the guards that had run out to stop them. Inside the warehouse it didn't appear to be anything interesting, only some old, rusting equipment laid around and what could be deduced to be an elevator in the center of the room. As soon as they entered the elevator, the true high tech nature of the facility was apparent. 

“According to the schematics I located, my group needs to get off at level one, Kitty's needs to get off at level three, and the last one needs to get off at nine,” Beast stated, checking the information once more before the elevator stopped and he led his team out.

Kitty smiled at the others as they reached the third floor and gave them a two finger salute. “Good luck guys! Let's go.” She led her group out into the darkened hallway beyond.

The rest of the elevator ride was awkwardly quiet as the three men waited, bland music playing overhead. Scott cleared his throat and Logan crossed his arms, both slightly uncomfortable as the professor sat there silently with his finger to his temple, reading the thoughts of the building. Finally, they reached their floor and left the contraption behind them.

\---

What waited for them outside of the elevator was a maze of hallways with rooms placed periodically within. They quickly found that most of the rooms were empty, and the ones that weren't had guards or scientists prepared to fight them. This floor had many machines they had seen before, and many they hadn't, none of which were any fun to be placed in.

“They're all dead,” Kitty's voice said in a numb tone from their ear pieces.

“I'm sorry, what?” Scott asked, pausing in their search.

“They're all dead. All of them. I think the minute we showed up they-... they're all dead,” Kitty explained, her numb tone breaking towards the end.

The professor sighed and touched his ear piece, “Head back to the jet, start preparing for us to leave. I think there is one child down here that's still alive, but he's losing his grip. We're going to have to leave immediately.”

“Understood, professor,” Storm’s voice replied.

Xavier put his finger to his temple again and started to rush. The other two defended him and followed him through the winding hallways to an inconspicuous room. Inside they heard a scream ring out, and they rushed in.

Scott rushed over to the kid as Logan started looking at the machine. It looked like a cookie cutter, squeezing him tightly with wires connected to his temples.

“Hey hey, Kid, look at me,” Scott said, trying to get the boy's attention. His eyes were open but unfocused and dull like he wasn't really seeing what was happening. “Wolverine, have you figured that thing out?”

Logan looked up at him from the control panel. “I'm working on it!”

Scott rolled his eyes and put his hands on the sides of the boy's face, hoping it would ground him. “We're gonna get you out of here, I promise. You're going to be just fine.”

There was a loud crash as Logan gave up trying to figure the machine out and resorted to destroying the control panel. It released the boy, causing him to fall forward like a rag doll onto Scott. “Whoa whoa whoa, don't worry, I've got you,” he said as he awkwardly caught him.

“Let me carry him out, I'm stronger,” Logan said, reaching to pick him up. Scott just nodded in agreement and handed the kid over. In this situation, having his laser vision to fight and Logan's big arms to defend the boy just made more sense.

As they ran out of the room the boy opened his eyes again, but Logan was far too busy running and evading shots to say much about that. The bouncing that came from it seemed to cause the boy pain and he readjusted his hold on him. “Sorry, kid, I'm-”

The trio found themselves facing three armed guards and a scientist blocking their path. It wasn't going to be hard to get past them, but the scientist held up his hand to make them pause. “I have a proposition for you.”

\---

The ride back up to the surface was terrible, the air filled with quiet sniffling and dull elevator music. There were no words that could make the situation better, but they had the chance to make this whole thing worth it by saving that boy. Nothing could fix all the death, but if someone could survive this place…

Dani was taking it especially hard. Storm wrapped an arm around her as they walked out of the elevator and towards the jet. The action caused her to cry more and lean against Storm. “I sensed it. I should have stopped death from taking them, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t stop it.”

Storm just sighed and held her comfortingly as they boarded and Kitty started up the jet. She sat Dani down in her seat and put her hands on her shoulders. “S.H.I.E.L.D. will be here soon to take those people into custody. They’ll take the children too, make sure they get the burials they deserve.”

Dani nodded. “I know, but… I should have-”

“There’s no changing the past, not in any way we should consider. It only ever makes things worse,” Storm replied with a little smile. “You’ll save the next ones. We will save the next ones. And if we can save this boy, his life might be able to bring justice for them. We have to think of him.”

“I know, you’re right. You’re right. Okay. I’m okay,” Moonstar replied, taking a deep breath.

“Good. I need to go help Kitty,” Ororo replied, placing a hand on her head before taking the co-pilot’s seat.

\---

The moment the elevator door closed behind them, they were being shot at. Emma quickly made the guards fall asleep, making it a very short fight, but it was a pretty clear sign that this wasn’t going to be easy. “Well, lead the way, Beast,” she said, waving forward.

Hank nodded and brought up his map again, leading them through the winding hallways. They ran into guards repeatedly as they went, but it was nothing that was of any great threat to them. These guys were no match for them, there were just many of them to deal with. Eventually, the trio ended up at a large metal door that appeared to be locked. Hank immediately started hacking into it muttering, “This will take me a minute, unless you can get it open, Emma.”

“See the sensor up there? I think we’ve got ourselves into a power dampening field, or we’re about to enter it,” Rogue stated, pointing up at a little thing above the door.

Emma attempted to open the door with her mind but found herself unable to. “The field starts here. We need to disable that before we go in there, or we’ll be sitting ducks.”

Rogue nodded in agreement. “I’ll work on that, you keep trying to blast in open, Hank, you keep hacking away. We’ll get in there either way,” she instructed before climbing up to the sensor to find a way to disarm it. A minute passed before the was blasted open and Emma rushed in to take care of the people inside. “Got it.”

Hank laughed and entered, immediately beginning to hack into their serves and download their information as the other two took care of the scientists and guards in the room. “This will take a few minutes, the download is processing, and after that I’ll shut down the entire system.”

“How long?” Emma asked.

“Maybe ten minutes?” he replied. “If I can stay focused on my task.”

Rogue nodded, and started dragging the men away from the door, and from Hank, in case they woke up and tried to stop them.

“They're all dead,” Kitty's voice said in a numb tone from their ear pieces.

“I'm sorry, what?” Scott’s voice replied.

“They're all dead. All of them. I think the minute we showed up they-... they're all dead,” Kitty explained, her numb tone breaking towards the end.

The professor’s voice instructed, “Head back to the jet, start preparing for us to leave. I think there is one child down here that's still alive, but he's losing his grip. We're going to have to leave immediately.”

“Understood, professor,” Storm’s voice said, concluding the interaction.

Emma paused before rubbing her forehead and sighing. “She’s right. I can’t sense any of their minds. They were there when we touched down but they’re gone now.”

The trio fell into silence at that news, standing there silently as Hank typed away. Even if they couldn’t save everyone, there was still a chance they could save the boy the professor mentioned, and if that was the case it meant all this was worth it. Many lives were lost, but if anyone would be saved, it was better than none.

“So… if we shut everything down, how will these guys get out?” Rogue asked, seeming loud after the silence.

“There’s a back staircase, and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s people will be here soon enough. Don’t worry about that,” Hank said. “Almost done.”

“Thank god,” Emma muttered, gently kicking an unconscious guy’s shoe.

“Stop that,” Rogue said. “They might deserve it but there’s no point.”

Emma shrugged, “If he gets a bruise on his foot, maybe he won’t be such an asshole.”

Rogue snorted a laugh at that and rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“And I’m done,” Beast stated after a few minutes had passed, pulling out the flashdrive. “Starting the shutdown now.”

“We’d better be heading out then,” Rogue said.

Hank nodded and finished up his work before tapping his earpiece and saying, “We got everything from the main computer and a system wide shutdown is underway. We're leaving the warehouse now. If you don't get out of the elevator in five minutes, you'll be locked in there and have to find the back stairway.”

“We're almost there now. I need you to set up the emergency med station on the ship as soon as you get back, we found a boy alive, but in a bad state,” Scott’s voice replied through the piece.

“His name is Thomas. He was being tortured so that his mind would crumble and he would no longer display his abilities. I'm currently trying to keep him in one piece, but with the amount of pain he's in, it's difficult. The sooner he gets help, the better chance he has,” Professor X spoke up.

“Got it,” Hank replied, though he hadn’t touched his earpiece in his rush out of the room. The trio ran back to the elevator. The wait and the music were terribly annoying given the rush they were in, but they were lucky to be on the floor closest to the top. As quickly as they could, they got back on the jet and started setting up the emergency station for Thomas.

“We’re back,” Rogue called, making her way over to the other three and sitting down near Dani.

Dani gave them a sad smile. “How’d it go?”

“Pretty well. I knocked out a sensor, Emma blasted a door and kicked a man’s shoe, Hank hacked everything,” Rogue joked.

“Why did she kick his shoe?!” Dani cried, amused.

Emma walked over and crossed her arms. “He deserved it.”

\---

“Is that proposition that you get the hell out of our way or we make our way through you?” Scott asked.

“No, you give us the boy, and I give you this flash drive of information we've collected through our studies. It could be beneficial to your work, much more so than that deviant you've got there.”

Logan spit in his direction. “No kid's life is worth less than information we're already stealing from you.”

And then his arms were empty, and the boy was a few feet away, screaming in pain. Logan stabbed the closest guard, then through the scientist's chest with his claws while Scott shot the other two. He quickly picked the boy back up again. The boy gave him a weak smile and handed him a bullet that Logan assumed he'd caught to protect them. Taking the bullet from him with his one hand, he said to the boy calmly, “You did good, kid. Don’t worry, we’re almost out.”

“We got everything from the main computer and a system wide shutdown is underway. We're leaving the warehouse now. If you don't get out of the elevator in five minutes, you'll be locked in there and have to find the back stairway,” Beast said through the earpiece.

“We're almost there now. I need you to set up the emergency med station on the ship as soon as you get back, we found a boy alive, but in a bad state,” Scott replied, shooting the boy a glance before shooting two more guards.

“His name is Thomas. He was being tortured so that his mind would crumble and he would no longer display his abilities]. I'm currently trying to keep him in one piece, but with the amount of pain he's in, it's difficult. The sooner he gets help, the better chance he has,” Professor X spoke up. It was clear from the way he spoke that he was more focused on his task than anything else.

They fought their way to the elevator and climbed in, music still playing away. The wait was a relief this time as Logan and Scott got a chance to examine the boy- Thomas’ state better than they had in the dark room they'd found him in. He was far too thin to be healthy, with his white hair in a buzz cut and white clothing looking far too big on him. His face was screwed up in a pained expression, and he occasionally let out a whimper, though his eyes didn't particularly display an understanding of the situation. This was bad but it was fixable, they hoped.

\---

When he regained consciousness, he was being carried protectively by someone with dark, thick hair and strong arms through the building. Tommy had no idea who these people were, but they seemed to be rescuing him, so he didn’t try to fight against the one holding him. Each quick movement of the rescuer sent a shot of pain through him, causing him to fade in and out of coherence. It was like everything was moving too fast or too slow, and he couldn’t make sense of any of it.

“Sorry, kid, I’m-”

Tommy felt the rescuers stop, and noticed a group consisting of a doctor and three guards at the crossroads they’d just gotten to. The rescuers and the doctor spoke, though he didn’t really understand what was said. As he was watching, he saw one of the guards pull his trigger at the group, and instinct took over. He felt everything around him slow down as he jumped out of the arms and took a few steps to grab the bullet out of the air. Time suddenly caught up to him again as he collapsed in pain after doing so. He saw shots and lasers shoot out above him before it quieted down and arms picked up up again. Tommy gave the man a weak smile and held out the bullet for him.

“You did good, kid. Don’t worry, we’re almost out,” the man said calmly, taking the bullet from him.

Time blurred again as the rescuers continued running and eventually made it up to the ground floor and out of the building. There was shouting as they got to some sort of air ship thing and he groaned from the pain of being jostled around. They entered the ship and he was laid down on something before he fell unconscious again.

\---

They finally reached the top floor and rushed out into the jet, placing the boy on the table the others had set up. As soon as they got aboard, the door shut behind them and they were airborne. The mission was done and now they had to keep this boy alive. He seemed to have finally given up consciousness as they laid him down, which was about all they could have asked for.

Beast went to work, examining him and judging what needed to be done. “If only we had a healer right now… He needs pain medication and time more than anything. Nothing seems to be broken, but I can't tell what sort of effects the torture had right now. I think he'll be alright, but we need to be quick.”

“His memories are disjointed and messy right now, so it's difficult for me to get a good read on what they did to him, but I don't doubt there will be long term effects,” Xavier explained.

Emma sat down in a seat and looked back at them. “Torture wasn't all of it, that seems to have been a last resort. It makes sense that the strongest willed one in there was the only one that survived.”

“Emma!” Rogue muttered whacking her gently with a glove before putting it back on. “It's a good thing he's so strong, but by god, all those kids…”

Dani stroked the boy's head, which did seem to bring him some comfort. “There were about fifty of them we think. It must have been a fail safe so that they couldn't talked about what happened there…”

“One of the scientists tried to barter for Thomas, no doubt so they could kill him,” Scott said with a sigh.

“I'll watch over him. I'll be his advisor, unless either of you feel strongly that you want to be it,” Dani stated, rubbing the tears from her eyes. “Seeing all those children… I have room to advise another, please.”

“Of course, Dani. You don't hear a complaint from me,” Logan said, sitting down in his chair. “We got him out of there, it can be your job to help him get through the fallout of this place.”

“I agree. I was going to suggest you or Kitty. I think either of you could be what he needs right now. If you want to be his advisor, all the power to you,” Scott agreed, giving them some room. 

“He's not going to be an easy one to advise. From what I can tell, he'd gone through a lot before ever entering that place, and was quite a trouble maker. I agree that you or Kitty would be the right one for him, though I think Kitty has enough on her plate right now without him. You'll be a great help to him, if you can find a way for him to connect with you,” Professor X confirmed.

“That's settled then,” Dani said warmly, making sure Thomas was as comfortable as he could be for the remainder of the flight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- The X-Men have a deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. that if they find out about something involving mutants, they allow the X-Men to go in first and extract any mutants being held captive as long as they leave as many of the criminals alive for them to pick up as they can. It's mutually beneficial because S.H.I.E.L.D. has less work to do and the X-Men get to free mutants.  
> \- The events of this chapter are greatly influenced by the book 'The Girl Who Could Fly', which in turn was inspired by the X-Men.


	2. The Rise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy wakes up at the Xavier Institute of Gifted Youths and begins his recovery. He meets interesting characters, goes shopping, and goes to therapy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have gotten to chapter thirteen of this fic and I'm not not done writing it yet! I'm going to be uploading every Wednesday, so keep your eyes out!

#### Mother May I

Mary Shepherd had been the opposite of pleased when her son started showing signs of the mutant abilities they’d known he was going to manifest eventually. They had him tested for the x-gene as a child when he started having behavioral problems which had come back positive, a fact that eventually led to her and her husband getting a divorce. Still, she had never wanted a mutant child, she had only kept Thomas out of a sense of obligation.

It all started with his father throwing that bottle. By all logic, it should have hit Tommy. Instead, time seemed to slow and he just grabbed the bottle out of the air, startled and confused. He'd brushed it off to his father as having been practicing for football, and left the trailer his father lived in as quickly as possible. 

He was terrified by this event, and wasn't sure what to do about it. It wasn't like he could tell anyone what had happened, for so many reasons, so he couldn't exactly ask for advice. How his parents felt about mutants had always been clear, and Tommy had been old enough to recognize the difference between the family before and after the test, and blamed himself for it. If he really was a mutant, he was just as bad as the monsters in his t.v. shows.

Then, starting that night, his hair had begun to turn white. It started at the roots then as his hair grew, so did the whiteness. He desperately shoplifted the closest hair dye to his usual auburn and dyed his hair in the bathroom at the closest gas station. It didn't take long for his mother to start noticing the white roots that came in far too quickly for his liking, and the jig was up. Soon enough everyone in town knew, and what little respect and such that he got was gone. Tommy knew his mother was ready to kick him out at the soonest opportunity, and tried to stay out as much as possible to avoid her.

Then, these people showed up from someplace called the Academy of Exceptional Youths, claiming they could cure Thomas of his oddities, and return him without the unfortunate defect that was his mutation. Mary handed him over without a second thought. She didn’t care what they did to him or what state he came back in, only that she didn’t have the public shame of having a mutant child anymore.

\---

#### Somewhere New

Tommy woke up somewhere soft. This was unexpected. His bed was hard and his blanket was stiff and lacked comfort. The bed he was laying on now was soft, and so were the blankets, and the long sleeved shirt he seemed to be wearing now, as well as the sweatpants. Everything was… soft… and… nice. He didn't trust it. He opened his eyes quickly, then shut them again just as fast as the lights blinded him. 

“Oh! Sorry, let me turn those off. That place was so dark, I doubt you've been anywhere this bright in a long time,” a woman’s voice said from somewhere else in the room before he heard the click of a light switch and the room dimmed.

He blinked a few times before opening his eyes again. The room he was in was some sort of infirmary or hospital or something. It wasn't scary like the one he was used to though, this one was neat and clean and soft. That was when he remembered the rescue from the cookie cutter, and the pain that accompanied it. For now though, the pain seemed to be gone. Tommy blamed the drip thing attached to his hand for that.

“H-... Hi?” he said, finally paying attention to the woman. She had darker skin and black hair, and a much friendlier face than any he was used to.

“Hi, Thomas, I'm-”

“Tommy,”

“I'm sorry?”

“Tommy, please.”

“Oh! Okay. Hello, Tommy, I'm Dani. You're at the Xavier Institute. Have you heard of us?”

Tommy sniffled and thought about it for a second. “X-Men?”

“Yep! The X-Men work here. We're a school for mutants like yourself, so that you can learn and grow and figure out how to control your powers in safety.” Dani did not like the face Thomes made at the mention of him being a mutant. There was definitely going to be a lot to work on. “We rescued you from that facility, and you can stay here as long as you need. You can be a regular high schooler here, you won't be an outsider because of your DNA. That said, you can of course go home-”

Tommy scoffed at the idea then let out a very sass filled, “No.”

“Or you can stay with us.”

He laughed a little at that, though it caused him to wince from the pain of movement. “Yeah… better than… streets.” That whole thing seemed to exhaust him, and he struggled to stay awake.

“That is very true. Well, since you'll be staying with us. I'll be your advisor! I'll help you figure out what classes to take and help you develop your powers to the best of our ability! We can talk about that more later, once you've rested some more. Once you're a little bit stronger, we'll get you all set up with a room and a schedule and everything! Sleep now though,” Dani stated, turning off the rest of the lights and leaving him to fall back to sleep.

When he next woke, there was a large, furry, blue man in the room, playing with the stuff Tommy was attached to. He was feeling a little better this time, a little more alert, a lot more capable of panic. Being raised in a terribly anti-mutant family then tortured and experimented on for being a mutant didn't exactly quell his growing terror at the sight of this guy, or the equipment. Tommy let out a panicked gasp and scrambled away from him, trying to pull the wires out of his arms. All the movement caused pain to shoot through him.

“Hey hey hey, it's okay, don't pull those out. Scott!” the man said, at first trying to calm him down, then calling out to someone who wasn't in the room.

A man with strange glasses and brown hair poked his head into the room. He was familiar enough that Tommy stopped fighting the ape man for the wires, though the familiar one still seemed concerned. “What's up? Is everything alright?”

“Our young friend woke up and saw me for the first time and started pulling out the equipment. I think it would be best if you helped calm him down and I left the room,” Ape Man said calmly, slowly walking to the door as to not start Tommy's panic again.

“Ah, yeah, okay. I'll take care of this,” ‘Scott’ replied. He pat Ape Man on the shoulder and walked slowly over to Tommy. Scott sat down in the chair beside the bed and smiled at Tommy, scratching his head to seem nonthreatening. “Hey, kid, remember me?”

Tommy didn't uncurl from his fetal position thing he had going on, but he did relax a little. “A little.”

“Good! I'm Scott. That guy was Hank, or Beast as we call him on missions. He's a doctor-”

At the mention of doctors, Tommy tightened his position again and started trying to pull at his wires.

“No no! Totally different than the scientists you were with before. He's a good guy, and the reason you're feeling better. I know he looks scary but he's one of the nicest guys around,” Scott explained. Tommy didn't seem particularly moved by the description, he had stopped pulling at the wires, but he still seemed scared.

“Doctors are bad. Mutants are bad. Schools are bad,” Tommy mumbled into his knees.

Scott took a deep breath and scooted his chair closer. “That place wasn't a real school, and if those people had their doctorates, they didn't deserve them. And, mutants aren't bad. I'm sure they told you that a lot there, but we aren't. I can promise you that.”

“My parents would disagree,” he retorted. “And the rest of my family. And my classmates back home. And the most of the community.”

Scott just nodded like he'd made a good point, and leaned forward so his forearms rested on his knees. “You've been dealt a bad hand, Tommy. We can't fix your past, we can't change how cruel people have been to you because you happen to have the x-gene.” He sat up in a more confident stance. “What we can do is offer you a place at this school, where you'll have people like you as your classmates and community. I know you said to Dani that you would stay, but I don't know if you remember that, or really understood what was happening. I also know that you said that solely because you can't go home and you don't want to end up on the streets. That's a valid reason for staying, it is, but that's more out of necessity than desire. You don't have to want to be here, but if you do, it'll make settling in and adjusting to life here a lot easier.”

Tommy sniffled and relaxed a little bit during the speech. “My parents split ‘cause of my x-gene. They were never really nice to me because of it. When I started doing weird stuff, they hated me even more, so when those guys came by from the academy, my mom handed me over to them because ‘I'd rather have a son that's dead or brain dead than a mutant-...”

“I'm sorry you had to go through that. You never have to see them again if you're here, and you'll be able to continue your education and make friends and have a safe place to grow up and learn, a place where the adults want to see you do well,” Scott said.

He sniffled again and nodded. “I think I'd like that.”

“Good! Good. Can I fix your wires now? I know it brings back bad memories, but for right now it's necessary,”

Reluctantly Tommy held out his hands so that Scott could reattach everything. He closed his eyes so he didn't have to see it all, which did help some. The feeling of it all made him feel panicked again though, and the newly reattached heart monitor told everyone within earshot as much.

“Do you have any idea what you can do?” Scott asked.

Having conversation to distract him was a relief, so Tommy shrugged and replied, “I thought I was a speedster kinda person, like Quicksilver or something. I even have the hair! But the doctors said the usual stuff they feed speedsters to make them stop didn't work on me, so it just be something else.”

“We are experts at helping people understand their powers and learning to control them. Most kids come here without a real understanding of what they can do. Don't worry too much about that side of things, okay? You'll figure all that out soon. Plus, you're fourteen, you have plenty of time to worry about that.”

“I'm fourteen?”

Scott paused at that, seeming to be looking for a good answer to that. “We looked into who you are, so that we can fill out the paperwork and know what we're dealing with. Your birthday passed a few months ago, though I guess you were in that place and didn't know.”

Tommy snorted. “Worst. Birthday. Ever.”

The man actually laughed at that and continued with what he was doing. “Yeah, I bet. We know about your record everything else. Don't worry, we don't judge about stuff like that. Especially since most of it can be excused by the fact that your mother apparently didn't want to give you the medication they prescribed when you were a kid, or be a good mother in any sense of the word.”

Tommy snorted again. “Half the stuff I got in trouble for was me hitting bullies back, either on my behalf or someone else's, or me stealing food.”

“Exactly. We take care of our students. Anything you need to be a happy, healthy person, we do our best to help with… On that same topic, you're also going to have to go to counseling with the professor.”

“Do I have to?” Tommy whined.

Scott huffed out a little laugh. “Considering your entire life? Yes.”

Tommy laughed a bit at that and relaxed the rest of the way. “Yeah okay, that's fair,” he said before letting out a big yawn.

“First thing's first, you need to recover from this. Get some rest, we'll be nearby if you need anything, just call for us.”

“Will do, thanks… for everything. All this, and rescuing me.”

“It wasn't just me, it was all of the X-Men. Everyone played their part during the mission and it's what let us help you. But, on the team's behalf, you're welcome. And welcome to the school.” With that, Scott turned off the lights and left the room, keeping the door ever so slightly open in case he needed them.

\---

#### Crashing and Burning

Slowly over the next two weeks, Tommy recovered from his torture. He started to get to know the people in charge of this place, and his advisor. It seemed like a nice place, he hadn’t thought it would be any better than the place he was taken from, but this place seemed honest about its intentions. Staying at this school actually seemed like a good idea, not just his only option. He still doubted he’d get along with people or make any friends though. He wasn’t exactly good at that sort of thing. Tommy knew he was all energy and fire and it make people uncomfortable. Sure, nobody was going to hate him because of his powers, but they might not like him because of who he was. That idea was terrifying.

The other great terror of his was this stupid infirmary room he had yet to leave. He felt claustrophobic, trapped. Tommy didn’t like to feel trapped. Nor did he like medical equipment. It just reminded him of where he escaped from and brought back the memories like fresh wounds that wouldn’t heal. They said he needed to take it slow, to give it time, not to push himself too hard.

Tommy wasn’t exactly good at any of those things.

Which was why he was peeking out of the doorway to see where Hank was in his lab. If he used his ‘speed’ he could get past without issue, but he was terrified to do so. After being in that place for so long, the idea of using it was nerve wracking, and he felt sure that he would get it wrong somehow. Still though, it was the best way to get out. With reluctance, he took a breath to calm himself down before doing what he was used to doing and everything slowed down.

And then familiar pain spread from his head and chest throughout his body, causing him to lose his concentration and collapse, letting out a cry of pain. Hank immediately turned around and ran over to him, picking him up and carrying him to the bed.

“What happened? You got to the door without problem, what caused this?” Hank asked, starting to check him over.

The pain was still there in the background, it usually was, but it had lessened when he stopped using his power. “Tried to speed past you,” he grunted.

Hank nodded and continued looking over him. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d done something to make it hurt when you tried to use your mutation.”

“No shit,” Tommy said, rolling his eyes.

“Careful with that sass, I can take it but not every teacher will. I’ll need to run some tests to find out why this is happening, so I suggest not trying to use your powers until then. If you’re doing well enough to be up and about, we’ll settle you into a room soon. I know a few people were talking about taking you shopping for clothes and things to personalize your space, so you have that to look forward to, once you’re strong enough,” Hank said, tucking Tommy in again.

It was so weird how much people here seemed to care about him. What was their deal? Maybe they were just nice. Maybe they wanted to use him. Did it really matter right now? It wasn’t like he could run away right now anyway. “Sounds fun. Do I have a roommate?”

“We’re working on that right now, that’s up to your advisor and the Professor,” Hank explained.

“Okay… Thanks…” he said slowly, awkwardly. Tommy was still trying to get used to the large, furry, Gorilla Man. It was a lot.

“You’re very welcome, Thomas, now please don’t get back up again until someone else is in the room to help you, we don’t want you to fall and hit your head on something,” Hank stated, heading towards the door.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll try to wait,” he joked, settling in.

Hank just rolled his eyes and left the door slightly ajar as he left.

\---

#### Shopping Spree

If you had told Tommy that he would one day be at a mall with Cyclops and Shadowcat, he would not believe you. Why would he? That idea was crazy. And yet.

“Oh look look! We need to get smoothies,” Kitty stated as they walked.

“We don’t need smoothies,” Scott replied.

“Tommy, do you want a smoothie?” Kitty asked.

“I… don’t want to be a bother…”

She grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the shop. “Nonsense! You aren’t a bother at all. And that’s exactly why we need to get smoothies, to prove it.”

Tommy just laughed a little at that and gently pulled out of her grasp as she started looking at the choices. He was wearing some spare clothes that used to belong to Scott that were slightly too big, but he pulled the sleeves down anyway. “Can I… Can I have a banana strawberry one?”

“Sure! Whatever you want. Today is for you! Scott?”

“Honey-dew Almond,” he said, crossing his arms.

“Great!” She ordered their drinks and paid for them, handing the correct one to each of them when they were finished.

“... Thanks…” Tommy mumbled, sipping on his drink. It was so weird to have people buying him things like this. He felt vaguely uncomfortable because of it. Still though, it was really nice, and now he had a smoothie.

They started meandering around the mall again, going from shop to shop in an attempt to find things that fit Tommy. He was 5’8” and naturally slight, but he was also underweight after being in that place for months. That meant things that were long enough hung off of him like he hardly existed. Kitty insisted that they get anything that looked nice on him, and that they would fit better once he gained some of his weight back. Scott wasn’t exactly a fashion expert, but he could go back into the men’s changing rooms with him when he needed someone.

“Can we… maybe look for hats? I used to have hair that was long enough to get in my eyes… I feel weird having it so short…” Tommy asked.

Kitty’s eyebrows went up, happy that he was actually asking them for a specific thing. “Of course! There’s a few stores that have good hats.”

They left with a closet and beuro worth of clothes, a few pairs of shoes, and half a dozen beanies. Having clothes that fit and he liked made him almost feel like himself again. There was the nagging in the back of his mind that he couldn’t run, but he was feeling better than when they left the school. They’d also bought things to decorate his new dorm room, some posters, some CDs, things he would need for class that had his personal flare. It was nice. He fell asleep on the way back to the school, comfortable and relaxed for the first time on a long time.

\---

#### Friends?

Tommy had received help with some of the more difficult parts of decorating a half of a dorm room, but for the most part he’d done it all. The silver and green sheets made the room feel brighter, and the band posters on the wall made it feel personal. They’d said his roommate would be arriving in the afternoon, and that his name was Jay. It wasn’t like Tommy was nervous about meeting him or anything. He was just feeling happy he could pace again. It wasn’t like it mattered if they got along. Tommy could always leave.

There was a little knock on the door which caused Tommy to jump, before opening the door in a rush. “Hello?”

On the other side of the door was a boy with red hair and red wings, with many bags around him. “Hey, I’m Joshua, Jay. I guess you’re Tommy?” Jay asked, reaching to shake his hand.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Tommy replied, shaking his hand before helping him carry things into the room. “Oh, nice guitar.”

“Thanks. I couldn’t leave it behind, you know?” Jay said, starting to sort through his things. “Nice posters. Do you play anything?”

“Piano, like a nerd. I’ve always wanted to learn guitar.”

“Hey, piano is cool. Maybe you can teach me a few things on piano and I can teach you some things on guitar.”

Tommy smiled a little at his new roommate. “That sounds like a plan. What kind of stuff do you like? Do you need any help?”

“Yeah sure. Can you put the stuff in this box onto the desk? And I like rock and punk and all that kind of thing. You?” Jay asked, unpacking his clothes.

He did as he was asked to do. “Same, I like a mix of things, old and new, alt and punk and stuff like that.”

“How did you get into piano? I picked up guitar on my own.”

“My teachers thought having something to do with my hands might make it easier for me to pay attention in class. My mom wouldn’t medicate me for my ADHD and I was way too hyperactive to pay attention in class, so they had to get creative.”

Jay nodded. “Music is a good way to cope with stuff too. Maybe we could play together sometime.”

“Yeah, sure. I’m sure this place has a piano somewhere… Do you have stuff to cope with?”

His roommate froze before putting things away with new vigor. “Yeah.”

… Great work, Tommy. “I didn’t mean to upset you or anything, I was just wondering. I’ve got shit too, you know?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Jay said quietly, clearly done with the conversation.

Tommy put the last of the things on the desk and helped unpack in any way he could in an attempt to make up for his comment. Words were stupid, actions were easier to prove. The ice melted by dinner and the pair sat together, talking about bands and songs, both somewhat surprised to find something of a friend so quickly. They didn’t talk about their pasts, which was for the better right now, so Tommy thought.

He went to bed that night after shout singing Queen with his new friend and annoying their neighbors for half an hour, happy. It made Tommy nervous that things were going so well but as he laid there, hearing Jay’s slow breathing, decided that he would enjoy this as long as it lasted. This was nice. It might not last long, but he deserved a period of peace after everything.

\---

#### Therapy?

Professor Xavier smiled at Tommy as he entered his office. It was a nice place, very clean and organized, lots of things to look at so he didn't get too bored. “Good afternoon, Tommy, how have you been settling in? Not too stressful I hope.”

“No, it's been fine.” Thomas didn't want to be there. He really didn't want to be there. Talking about feelings wasn't something he was comfortable with.

“I know you don't want to be here.”

“Damn telepaths.”

“And I know you aren't comfortable with the idea of these meetings, but I want you to try your hardest to get the most out of our time together for the next three meetings. If by then you don't see any improvements, we can stop,” the professor said.

The idea that this thing wasn't permanent and he did have a choice was comforting. Tommy didn't feel trapped anymore. “That works for me I guess, I promise I'll do my best.”

“Good! And I promise I'll help you reach your goals as much as I can. Tell me, Tommy, what do you want to achieve in these sessions?”

“... I didn't plan for this.”

“That's alright! What's something that bothers you a lot that you want to fix?”

“I don't know. I guess maybe feeling normal again? Or feeling better than normal, cause my old normal sucked?”

The professor nodded, and said, “We can work on that, definitely.” He then started to ask Tommy questions that he couldn't remember, even though they probably didn't benefit the telepath any and were likely for Tommy's sake before concluding. “This was a foundation day, next week we'll start actually working on the problem.”

“Am I okay? Did I pass?” Tommy asked, only half joking.

“I think you have been struggling for a long time and you aren't sure how to deal with finally getting the help you need. I wouldn't say exactly that you're okay right now, but you can be. You've been through a lot, I think you've earned the right to not be okay. And there isn't a pass or fail in here, you won't get graded on it. This is for you.”

“Do you know what's wrong with me already?”

“I believe you are traumatized. I believe you might have depression stemming from that. I believe you have problems with your self image stemming from your childhood. And of course, the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which we won't give you medication for until we work on the other things a bit first. If we try stimulants, it could cause the other things to worsen, so we want to take our time with that. In the meantime, you're teachers will understand and work with you, don't worry.”

Tommy laughed a little. “Damn telepaths, why am I even here? Can't you just go in my brain and fix it?”

“The mind is a complicated thing, Thomas. It's better for you to work through your problems personally, rather than one of us going in and fixing it for you. It will be more permanent this way, and help you in the future when you one day leave this school.”

“I guess… Can I go now?”

“Yes you can go now.”

“Great thanks bye,” he said in a rush while he left the room as quickly as possible. It was so weird to have all of his problems so clearly laid out for him by somebody who could see into his brain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Tommy was born in October  
> \- Tommy has a whole thing about giving things his own names  
> \- The majority of his hats are beanies from Hot Topic. I have literally researched Hot Topic items for this fic  
> \- Jay is having a bad time in life at the moment  
> \- I am using my own experiences with ADHD and therapy and anxiety to write this story


	3. The Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy flicks a guy, makes some friends, eats some fries, hugs a guy's legs like a koala, and joins the track team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Mentions of being cut and general panic induced by doctors.
> 
> This chapter happens over the week following the last chapter. Next chapter will be the week following this one.
> 
> I will be uploading on Wednesdays from now on, so remember to keep an eye out! I have written up to chapter 14, and there's a few more after that one that until the second arc is over, THEN there's a third arc at least. My college started back up today, so I might not be writing at the same pace I have been writing at from now on, but I do hope keep going as much as I can. I know where I'm going with the story, basically, but if certain things change, this chapter might get altered. If I do change it, I'll let you know in the most recent chapter.

#### First Day of Class

“Alright, class, we have a new student! Tommy, would you like to introduce yourself?” Moonstar asked, waving for Tommy to stand up.

Tommy stood and put his hands in his green jacket's pockets. He was wearing simple, comfortable clothes: jeans, a faded red “MAGNETO WAS LEFT” shirt, and an orange beanie. Other than the hat, he hardly stood out, which relieved him a bit. His first day back to classes hadn't exactly gone swimmingly so far. “Yeah, I'm Tommy. Don't know about any code names or whatever yet. I'm here now? Yeah.”

“What can you do?” a kid with an obnoxious face and pink hair and a “MAGNETO WAS RIGHT” shirt on who was sitting at the desk in behind him asked.

“Something involving speed probably,” he replied. Tommy didn't like the kid's tone, but he didn't want to get detention his first day.

Sensing the slight tension, Moonstar motioned for him to sit back down, which he did. “Thank you, Tommy. We'll work on catching you up in class as quickly as possible.” With that she started the lesson for the day.

_Hey, just want to let you know that I'm kind of a big deal. I'm an Omega Level Mutant and telepath. I know you already dislike me because of that, so I thought I should warn you, since you're new, not to try anything, because I can melt your brain before you even finish the thought._

“We'll see, Omega Ass,” Tommy said in a voice loud enough to alert the nearby students but not enough to disrupt class. The guy sitting beside him with the yellow shirt and orange glasses shook his head ever so slightly.

_I wanna see you try._

Tommy did the only thing reasonable in his situation, and made everything slow enough that he could hold off the pain for a second and reach around to flick the kid in the head before it caught up to him. As the pain spread through his body, he curled over and grunted, still able to catch a glance of the kid's surprised expression as his head snapped back from the flick. Out of the corner of his eye there was a blur of red as everyone in the room turned to look in their direction.

“What's going on?” Dani asked, confused and concerned.

“Tommy needs to go to the infirmary, ma'am, I'll take him,” the guy with the cool glasses said, helping Tommy stand and leave the class. He had a nice voice, smooth and warm.

They made it to a bench before they had to stop and rest. A moment passed before the guy laughed, it was as nice as his voice, and smiled at him. “I cannot believe you did that.”

“What, like it's hard?” Tommy quoted in return, causing the guy to laugh more.

“It really is! You've got to be pretty powerful or something. And be warned, Quentin isn't going to let this slide, he's either going to try to recruit you into his schemes or get revenge. He's absolutely already decided which and how he’s going to do it.”

“So Omega Ass is actually named Quentin? I don't know which is worse,” he said, causing the guy to laugh some more. “Speaking of names, what's yours?”

“Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, I'm David,” David said. He adjusted his glasses and smiled at him again. It was a nice smile. “And you're Tommy, the newest person to Dani is the advisor to, and the one the X-Men have been talking quietly about for weeks, not letting people go visit you so you wouldn't get overwhelmed and not telling anyone much about you at all.”

Tommy laughed a little, shaking his head. “You did your homework.”

“I always do my homework.”

He laughed even more at that because it definitely seemed like David was talking about literal homework for class, but the seriousness of his voice also made it seem like he was some sort of spy or something. “Fair! That's fair. Cool glasses by the way. Orange is a nice color.”

“Thanks, I like your hat. I have a similar one I got a while back.”

“Thanks… I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“You aren’t in the habit of small talk are you?” David asked, seeming to be amused.

Tommy raised his eyebrows and laughed a bit at that. “Small talk? Slightly, I’ve been doing a lot of small talk since I woke up here. Making friends? Not so much.”

“Well, if you need help on that topic, I can introduce you to my friends. They’re advisees of Dani too, so you’ll have that in common with them,” David said.

“That sounds like it could be great, or a disaster, and knowing me, it will be a disaster,” Tommy joked.

David gave him a serious look again. “Don’t be down on yourself, have a little faith. They’re nice people, usually, and they’ll understand that you have a lot going on right now.”

“Yeah? You think so?”

“I know so. They’re good people. Not the wisest of people, but they have good intentions. None of them are the more violent people on campus.”

“There are violent people on campus?! Gee whiz, what a thing to find out on my first day of school,” Tommy said sarcastically.

David replied with his own sarcastic, “No no of course there aren’t! We are a peaceful nonviolent sanctuary for mutants to learn and grow.”

“Oh, phew, I thought I might have to run all the way back home to New Jersey where it is totally so much safer.”

“My hometown of Chicago is even safer. Nothing bad ever happens there.”

There was a moment of silence before both boys started laughing. “I like your style, David. Besides my roommate, you are ten years less boring than everybody else I’ve been hanging out with here.”

“Oh thank you. I think that might be the first time someone has called me less boring than the literal X-Men, so I’ll take it.”

“You’re welcome. I think it would be cool to meet your friends, if you still want to introduce me.”

“Sure! We’re planning on meeting up by the lake later. If Hank gives you the okay to leave the infirmary by then, I’ll take you over,” David agreed.

They stood up again and returned to their trek to the infirmary. Tommy was in slightly less pain now, so he needed less assistance to walk, making the task easier for both of them. “Thanks for this, by the way. Also getting me out of there before that whole thing could escalate.”

“No problem, it was the least I could do. You messed with Quentin, which all of us want to do, but don’t because he’d kill us,” David said with a small smile. “And you’re doing a good job.”

“At what?” Tommy asked as they neared their destination.

“Making friends,” he explained, giving him a wink before opening the door for him and giving Hank a wave. “I’ll see you later, Tommy.”

“Yeah, see you later,” Tommy said, watching David leave then entering the infirmary to explain what happened.

\---

#### What Even Are Friends

“You know, I really need to get your phone number,” Tommy said as he and David walked out of the school.

“Oh?”

“Before I get your number though, I really need to get a phone. I feel like that would make it actually useful to have your number.”

David laughed slightly at that. “I agree. A phone would be very useful.”

“Maybe I should bother Scott until he gives me one.”

“Please do not harass Cyclops, he has laser eyes and is not afraid to use them.”

David led Tommy over to a small group of people by the shore of the lake, none of whom were anyone Tommy had really taken notice of before. There was a girl who seemed to be avoiding eye contact, a girl with pretty hair and an interesting accent, and a boy who was looking at him like he was a threat. “Okay, guys, this is Tommy. I told you guys I was bringing him along.”

“I still can’t believe you snatched him up before someone else could,” the girl with the accent Tommy couldn’t place said. “I’m Sofia by the way, nice to meet you.” Tommy gave David a look that said ‘What is that supposed to mean’.

“There’s different cliques on campus and we can get kind of competitive,” David explained. “After what you did in class today, the more power hungry guys will probably start trying to befriend you so that they can have an advantage later on. We aren’t like that, but by being our friend you’re part of our group and will be seen that way by the school.”

“Grreeaat, so this really is just a high school for kids with powers who are stuck in one place so long that they start drama?”

“Basically, yeah,” said the guy Tommy didn’t know. “I’m Kevin, don’t touch me. I make things wither and die with a touch.”

“Noted, I can _not_ do that, but I can move really fast,” Tommy said, tightening his lips.

“I’m Laurie,” the last girl said quietly, playing with a piece of grass.

David bumped his shoulder against Tommy’s and whispered, “She’s shy. Don’t worry about it.”

“Nice to meet you guys. Is it really that terrible here?” Tommy asked. “You make it sound like it’s rough and crazy.”

“It is rough and crazy, but it’s also nice. We have a home here, and people we can relate to. I don’t think half of us would still be around if it weren’t for this place,” Sofia said. “You’ll understand soon, it just takes some time.”

Tommy sat down with them and David followed suit. As he tended to do, the moment he was sitting down, he started to pick at the grass. “I wouldn’t be, that’s for sure. They got me out of a bad place.”

“They're good people,” Laurie agreed quietly.

“Yeah, I think they might be.”

\---

#### Nightmare With a Side of Fries

_The guards pulled him out of his cell again, dragging him down the hallways towards the elevator. He fought against them, struggling in an attempt to escape the place he knew they were taking him, but just wasn't strong enough after months of being in this place to break free._

“Stop, no, please,”

_The guards didn't listen, didn't even acknowledge him as they waited for the elevator with that stupid music to reach their destination. Time seemed to blur as he found himself on the table again, the doctors ignoring him as they secured him to it and mumbling to each other._

“Don't, please. Let me go, let me go!”

_He fought against the restraints as the doctors started pulling out their blades to-_

“TOMMY!” Jay cried.

Tommy opened his eyes to see his roommate leaning over him, his hands on Tommy's shoulders like he'd been shaking him. “I'm awake,” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. “I'm awake, thanks.”

“Are you okay? You were really upset. Your talking woke me up and I got worried,” Jay said, sitting on the floor beside the bed.

“Yeah I just… it was just a dream. I just need a minute,” Tommy said with a sigh. He got out of bed and stretched before putting on a hoodie and his shoes. “I'm going for a jog. Don't wait up.”

“It's two a.m, please be careful. And, if you want company I can totally come with you. If not, that's cool too. I'm here either way.”

“Thanks, but I think I need some time to myself.” Tommy left their room and quietly walked through the halls. It killed him that he couldn't use his powers, but that didn't mean he couldn't run a few laps around the school before grabbing a snack and watching whatever was on the television so late at night.

It wasn't difficult to sneak out of the house. X-School was built more to keep people out than keep them in, and he was sticking close enough to the building that the security wouldn't think he was a threat. The late summer air was cool against his face warmed by the fear brought on through the nightmare. Though he wasn't using his powers, the familiar feeling of rhythmic movement was comforting. It was also nice that he was strong enough again to be able to do this.

He only managed two lap around before he hurt too much from his accidental use of his enhanced endurance. Carefully sneaking back into the house, Tommy headed to the kitchen to find something to eat. To his surprise, a familiar hairy man was sitting at the window, sipping on a beer.

“Nice run, kid. You should join the track team,” he said lazily, taking another sip.

“I was on the team in middle school. I stopped getting in trouble as much so I could take part. I feel like I probably shouldn’t be on the team, with my powers and everything,” Tommy replied, digging through the cabinets for something to eat.

“There’s french fries in the oven and chocolate milkshake in the fridge,” Logan said, sitting his bottle down.

Tommy froze for a moment before looking checking what he said. He pulled the blender with a chocolate milkshake held within, and poured himself a glass. “How’d you know this was my favorite? I thought you weren’t a telepath.”

“You smell like that’s type of thing,” he replied, looking up at him from the window seat. “The spatulas is in the drawer to your left, and the pot holders are beneath it.”

“That sounds like bullshit but okay,” Tommy snorted, taking out the fries and putting some on a plate for himself. “You want any?”

“I’ll get for myself,” Logan said, taking another sip of his beer. Tommy knew that Logan was one of the teachers that wouldn’t mind swearing, so he took advantage of it.

He took his snack and sat down near Logan, though not too close. There was a period of quiet where Tommy enjoyed the food and his companion enjoyed his beer. This was one thing he liked about Wolverine, he didn’t push about feelings and stuff, just stuck around.

“This is a school full of mutants,” Logan stated.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. We’ve got rules to make it fair for everyone, because everybody has powers. We make things equal for anyone who wants to take part. If you want to join track, don’t worry about being fair.”

Tommy thought about it for a moment, dipping his fry in his milkshake. “Yeah. I’ll consider it.” He didn’t want to agree to anything too quickly.

“Yeah, think about it. You planning on heading back to bed after this? Nightmares are a bitch, wouldn’t hold it against you if didn’t.”

“Weirdo. Probably not, I want to explore the house.”

“Hm, I’ll be up if you need anything, just call me and I’ll hear.” With that, Logan put his empty bottle away and grabbed another, leaving the room.

Tommy watched him go, somewhat confused by the whole exchange. He decided it would be better to just accept it as weird X-Men stuff and move on than to question it all. Either way, Tommy ate the entire tray of french fries and took his milkshake to go, relieved to have some time alone with his thoughts.

\---

#### Josh Please

It was the first Saturday that Tommy actually had free. Every other one previously had been spent in the med wing with Hank, trying to understand what was wrong with him. Hank decided that he deserved a break from it this Saturday, however, and allowed him to head into town with his friends. Tommy still wasn't sure how he'd gotten a group of friends.

Salem Center was a quaint place, more a hamlet than a town, but nicer by far than Springfield. The tiny businesses along the main street highlighted the small town feel, and though Tommy was a city guy at heart, he liked the place a great deal. It was small, but there was plenty to do, which he realized as his friends dragged him around to window shop.

Eventually they ended up at a coffee shop, The Grindstone, and were chatting happily at their table. After spending so much time on the outside of School Society, and then at the fake school, it was strange and exciting to be able to just sit in a coffee shop with people he got along with to talk about school work and classes and teachers and other normal teenager stuff.

Except, of course things couldn't stay that peaceful. Some people Tommy had never seen before came up to their table and he knew from experience that they were looking for a fight. They were mostly guys, though they were dressed like stupid villain henchmen so they couldn't see their faces, and seemed to be armed. Great.

“Can we help you guys?” David asked calmly, taking a sip of his coffee like this was no big deal.

“You're Xavier students, right?” the ass who seemed to be the leader asked.

“We might be. Do you really want to fight us and check?” David asked.

One of the boys, looked around nervously. “We should take this outside.”

The leader didn't look at him, just kept staring at David. “Yeah, I think we should, unless you're too scared to fight non-freaks like us.”

That was it. Tommy stood up quickly and punched the asshole in the face. The leader took a swing at him in return, which Tommy used his powers to dodge. Of course, that sent pain shooting through him and caused him to crumple to the ground, which left him open to being kicked. Tommy, knowing this was not a good position for him, grabbed the guy's legs like a koala and pulled him to the ground.

There were arms dragging him outside, which he quickly realized were David and Laurie as Kevin and Sofia gave them cover. “I'm okay! I'm okay!” Tommy said. “I'll stay over here, you guys fight.”

“We'll be back in a minute,” David agreed, giving Laurie a nod before running back into the fray.

“Promise you'll stay here, safe?” Laurie asked.

“Absolutely, go!” Tommy said. She reluctantly left him alone against the wall of the cafe, hidden behind a large mailbox.

From his position, he could see the fight pretty well. Tommy wished more than anything that he could join in, but he was in far too much pain at the moment to try. It seemed to be going in their favor, but it was hard to tell with those masks the bad guys were wearing. His only real option was to call the X-Men for help, which he did not want to do unless it was desperately needed. 

A scream rang out. Laurie. Tommy pushed himself to stand and see better. She was clutching her chest and blood was flowing out, and she collapsed onto the ground. He fumbled for his new phone to call for backup, but before he could, one of the bad guys knelt beside her and touched her. She gasped and sat up, seeming to be fine.

The other bad guys noticed this too, and shouted at him before leaving suddenly. “No, guys, wait!” That was the same voice from before. His fellow bad guys ignored him though, and continued leaving.

“Laurie!” Kevin called, running over to her.

“I'm okay! He healed me,” she said, looking to at her savior with a smile.

David ran back over to Tommy and helped him over to where the others had converged. “What's your name?” David asked, clearly not as adoring as Laurie.

“Um, Josh…” Josh said, taking off his mask and pulling off his hood. He was definitely uncomfortable.

“Hey, I grew up being told mutants were evil and bad and everything too, you're going to be fine,” Tommy said. He looked to David to see if he'd done well, but David was focused on the blond guy.

A familiar car stopped beside them and Moonstar and Karma exited it. “What happened?” Moonstar asked.

“We fought some guys in stupid outfits and made a new friend?” Tommy explained, though he sounded more questioning towards the end than sure.

“You must be the mutant we were alerted of,” Karma said.

“He saved my life! He healed me!” Laurie said.

“Thank you for healing Laurie. You are welcome to come back to campus with us and join the student body if you want to. We're always happy to help,” Moonstar stated.

The boy shook his head angrily. “No. My life was just ruined by this… I'm not a freak!” With that he threw down his mask and ran off.

“Well, alright. If you change your mind, you know where we are!” she called after him.

“Great work, ma'am,” Tommy teased.

“He just needs some time,” Sofia said. “I think he'll come around once he processes what just happened. It's really scary to discover you've got powers.”

“We'll keep an ear out in case he needs us, until then you five should get in the van,” Moonstar said, pointing at the car. “You aren't going to get in trouble for fighting the Reavers, but I think it's best if you all come home now.”

The group got into the van, all fairly bummed. They'd been having such a nice time, then that hate group just had to start a fight. Still though, the boy they'd met was on their minds, as they all hoped he would be okay.

\---

#### Thoughts on Thinking

Tommy plopped down in his usual seat and sighed. It was three weeks after the original meeting he had with the professor, and that meant it was time to ‘make his decision’. The sessions, more than he wanted to admit, had actually helped a fair bit, and continuing was probably his best bet at getting his life under control.

Still, he didn't want to admit that they were right and talking about that feelings shit actually did help. He never denied that the professor was right about him personally, but Tommy didn't want to have to say to him, and himself, that this worked as well as it did. Feelings had never been his strong suit. His parents had bottled up their feelings until they exploded at each other in toxic ways. It wasn't hard to figure out that doing that wasn't healthy for them or their relationship, but that was the only thing Tommy had ever known.

So he bottled it all up until someone tapped the glass and the whole thing exploded, getting him into far too much trouble for how old he was. Other times, he'd swipe food from places so that he wouldn't have to go home and deal with the fighting. The fact that he had poor impulse control brought on by his ADHD didn't help anything. It was just a constant thing around the bottle that increased the pressure and caused him to make bad decisions then not remember to learn from them.

The professor said that once they worked things out, that side of things would be more manageable, and that it could actually be what let him use his powers so well. Tommy wanted to agree. It had enough logic to comfort him that his mind that constantly races off-road in his head was not just a problem. He didn't exactly have a choice in whether he had it or not, so it might as well be part of his super power. Getting a grip on his brain and his feelings would only help to get it under control.

As the session wound to a close, the professor leaned forward a bit. “Speaking of, have you made your decision?”

Tommy pushed the chair so it leaned can on two legs. “Yeah, I think so. I think I'm going to join track.”

“That's lovely, I'm glad to hear it. I think it will benefit you a great deal. What about our meetings, have you decided whether we will continue or not?”

“Yes I have. I want to continue, for a while at least. Until I don't need it anymore. Maybe I'll change my mind next week.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- In this universe, M-Day never happened, and the Squad business will be happening parallel to the events of the Young Avengers comics.  
> \- Screw Quentin.  
> \- That scene is very important though, it has a lot of stuff that will come up later.  
> \- I have not read the comics for the New Mutants Squad but I have done a LOT of research on them and looked at panels I could find of them.  
> \- Nightmare with a Side of Fries will also make sense much later in the story, do not fear it.  
> \- Josh is trying his best.  
> \- As someone in therapy with ADHD, portraying that accurately is very important to me and I am using my experiences for the fic. I hope Tommy's growth due to getting help will help someone else some day.


	4. The Settling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy goes to track and makes friends, plays Smash Brethren Unlimited, makes a silly hat, runs around, and fights Julian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My schedule has gotten even more complicated than I'd been expecting, so my writing schedule has also gone down. I've also lost some of my drive to write this, if people leave comments, it might help with that so please take some time to do that if you would like to! I have many many chapters after 15 that I haven't written yet, and I'm almost to the end, once I do plan out that far exactly, I will state the firm ending chapter number, but currently 20 chapters is my estimate.

#### Track!

Monday morning, Tommy found himself on the track the school had, along with a bunch of kids he'd seen around but had never spoken to, as well as Wolverine. It was a nice morning, still feeling more like summer than the incoming fall, and the others seemed pretty happy to be outside. There was a girl in all black with black hair, a girl who looked like she was made of diamond, and a girl with funky lines on her face. In addition, there was a boy with dark hair, a kid who looked like a wolf, and a guy with silver looking tattoos or something all over.

All in all, they were an interesting group.

“This is Tommy, he’s going to be joining us on the team from now on. You can all introduce yourselves during warm up. Tommy, just follow their lead,” Wolverine said, crossing his arms.

He did as he was told, following the stretching that the guy with dark hair led. Before long the group was running warm up laps around the track. It wasn’t difficult, and Tommy was surprised by how much he had missed the physical activity. Back at that place, they'd hardly let the kids out of their rooms.

“I’m Roxy,” Diamond Girl said as they went. “Welcome to the team. I throw javelin, Nezhno over there,” she pointed at the tall guy with tattoos, “does discus throwing. Laura and Julian,” she pointed at the two with the dark hair, “do the decathlon and heptathlon respectively. Alani,” she pointed at the girl with funky markings on her face, “does long jump and Nick,” she pointed at the wolf guy, “does hurdles. What are you planning on doing?”

Tommy scratched his head. “Track. Running. Probably as many races as I can. I like to go fast and run as long as I can.”

“That’s fun,” Alani replied. “I’m not competitive like that, I like this though, jumping is more relaxed. I miss the waves back home, and the school doesn’t have a swim team yet, so here I am.”

“I just want to be the best at everything,” Julian stated.

“I didn’t feel like choosing one, and Wolverine is my father, so I do all of them,” Laura said, looking over at Wolverine who was watching them.

“Wait wait wait, Wolverine is your dad?!” Tommy asked, confused.

“Don’t ask, it’s a long story,” Roxy said, laughing a bit and shaking her head. “Just accept that Laura is weird and move along. No offense, Laura.”

Laura strugged. “I’ve had a really weird life.”

“I like to jump over things,” Nick said, attempting to change the topic. “People give me weird looks because wolves aren’t supposed to move like that.” Most of the group laughed, though the more serious members did not.

“I grew up in the Wakandan royal court and learned how to do many things there. Shot Put is not one of them, so I’m learning something new” Nezhno explained.

“Hey, Tommy, you’re friends with David and those guys, right?” Julian asked.

“Uh yeah, why?”

“My group and your group don’t get along. Be careful about that.”

Tommy was taken aback. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, we end up butting heads a lot. It’s just a difference of opinions mostly, but then it became a whole group against group thing. I tend to rub people the wrong way.”

“I can relate. I’m not here to fight anyone though. Maybe I’ll be a hero, I don’t know, but I didn’t come here to be one, I came here because I didn’t have a lot of options.”

“Well I’m here to be a hero,” Roxy said. “Alani, you too, right?”

“Yep!”

Laura scoffed. “I’m already a hero.”

“Being a hero would be fun! And you get to help people!” Nick said.

They finished up their warm ups and went off to do their own training. Tommy ended up just continuing to do laps until Wolverine told him to stop, which he hadn’t yet. A few minutes passed before Julian started running with him again. 

“What really happened on Saturday?” he asked. “Rumor is Reavers attacked, but I don’t believe rumors.”

“It was actually Reavers, apparently. I didn’t know what they looked like before Saturday so I’m taking Moonstar’s word for it.”

“Is it true you used your power once before passing out?”

Tommy sighed. “I didn’t ‘pass out’. When I use my power right now, it causes me to feel pain everywhere. I had to sit out the rest of the fight, but I wasn’t passed out.”

“And yet you managed to use it to get at Quentin Quire?”

“Yeah I did! Hurt me then too, but it was worth it.”

Julian laughed. “Yeah. Do you want to fight?”

“What? Sure? Probably not right now though,” Tommy said, confused.

“No no, not now. How about Friday night, by the gate? Powers allowed. I want to see if you can really fight,” Julian said firmly.

“Sounds like a deal, I’ll be there.”

“Great.”

Practice ended a while later, and Tommy had no regrets about joining the team. He was pretty sure he was going to get in trouble with his friends because of the whole fight thing, but it sounded like a good way to prove himself to him. He should was fairly certain he should learn more about his enemy before actually fighting him though, since all he knew was his first name.

\---

#### Boys Night

The day Josh moved into the school, everyone was buzzing. They had heard about the events on Saturday, and it wasn’t hard to piece together the fact that the new kid was the same one as the mutant kid who had been found during the event. Not that he would understand that though, since nobody was talking to him, or looking at him, or sitting anywhere near him. He had been a Reaver after all. Those guys were terrible.

Tommy’s group couldn’t really avoid him though, since he was David’s new roommate. Not that Tommy wanted to avoid him. He didn’t see the point. So what if the guy made some poor decisions? So had he! Sure, he hadn’t joined an anti-mutant militant group, but he had committed plenty of other crimes over the years, and Josh seemed way too nice to be the type to end up in Juvie. Tommy figured out pretty quickly that he’d probably been persuaded to join, rather than having joined on his own.

“Hey, Josh!” Tommy called down the hall. He dodged other students to reach his target, and walked beside him. “Hey.”

“Hi?” the confused Josh said, holding his books to his chest.

“Do you wanna hang out later? I’m also a weird new kid that people act weird around, and I had a lot of anti-mutant stuff growing up too. I’m not one of those assholes that’ll judge you for all that. Plus, you saved Laurie. I don’t get why people don’t think that deserves a chance,” Tommy said.

“Really? You want to hang out?”

“Sure! If you don’t mind playing Smash Brethren Unlimited with David and Jay and I. Jay always plays Pit, I change it every time, and David usually plays as Pichu. Usually Kevin is our fourth but he’s busy being a dramatic guy and wooing Laurie. I thought you could use some friends, and this is basically what David did for me, so now I’m doing it for you,” Tommy explained.

“That sounds fun, I’ll be there,” Josh said, looking a bit relieved that somebody wanted to befriend him.

“8 pm at the lounge near the med wing, it’s usually empty. Oh! And bring snacks, new guy always brings snacks,” Tommy said, patting him on the shoulder before running off down the hall again.

Later that day, Tommy arrived at the usual room for playing. David and Jay were already there, setting up the game and the snacks. He ran over and started stealing some of the chips, much to Jay’s annoyance and amusement. “Oh, by the way,” Tommy said between bites. “I invited Josh since Kevin isn’t coming.”

“You what?!” David cried from the couch. “You know how I feel about him.”

“Yeah yeah, but I think all he needs is a friend, like I did. If he’s anything like me, he lost everything when he got found out. That’s why he’s here. If we can let like, Emma Frost, be an X-Men, we should let a guy we don’t have proof actually ever did anything besides heal Laurie play Smash with us,” Tommy said firmly. He stole a few more chips before plopping down on the couch beside David. “Besides, we need a cleric in our party.”

“This is Smash, not Dungeons and Dragons. And Jay can heal!” David replied.

“Myself,” Jay said. “I’m more of a Bard than a Cleric, and not even a good Bard, I mean I can play but I can't cast spells.”

“And I’m a wizard, I know. We talked about this,” David sighed. “Okay, he can play with us. But! If he turns out to be a jerk, he’s uninvited.”

There was a light knock at the door as Josh slowly opened it. “I can leave if you don’t want me here…”

“No, you’re staying, did you bring snacks?” Tommy asked.

“We already have snacks,” Jay said.

“I brought popcorn I found in the cabinet, and some sodas?” Josh said, pointing at his backpack. “I remember seeing that there was a microwave in here unlike most of the lounges, so I didn’t pop it yet. I did bring salt and stuff too.”

“You didn’t bring popcorn, Jay. We’re going to replace you with the new Joshua,” Tommy teased.

“Oh no, I’m being replaced, who will play Smash with you guys now?!” Jay cried sarcastically.

“We can probably get Sofia to join us if we asked again,” David said, pushing up his glasses. “Probably not Laurie though.”

Josh sat his backpack down by the rest of the snacks and smiled a little at the others. “Should I pop it now or later?”

“Let’s wait until the chips are gone, we’re halfway there already,” Jay said, grabbing a soda and a controller, then sitting down beside David.

As Tommy went to do the same, Josh grabbed his arm. “You got hurt the other day, right?” he whispered.

“It’s something wrong with me. Whenever I use my power it causes me pain,” Tommy explained quietly. “Not your fault.”

“Do you want me to try to heal that? It might not work if that isn’t what’s wrong, but if it’s worth a try…”

“Do it, go ahead. There’s no harm if it doesn’t work,” Tommy said quickly.

Josh concentrated for a moment, and Tommy felt a rush of some sort of energy go through him. To test and see if it worked, he did what he usually did to make his powers go. Everything slowed down, but the pain didn’t follow. He whooped and ran around the room, feeling the rush he’d missed. When he stopped, everything sped back up again, and everyone started looking around confused, because Tommy had been to their side and now he was apparently gone.

“Guys, Josh fixed me!” he called from behind them. “I’ll be back in a minute, feel free to start without me!”

With that, he slowed it down again, or perhaps it was ‘sped up’, and ran through the school. He put Quentin’s finger in his nose, and put a blanket over Laurie’s head and spun Julian around a few times. Tommy ran to each of the professors and told them what happened, too excited to hold it in. Once he calmed down some, he returned to the others and grabbed the soda he’d meant to grab.

“Did you miss me?” Tommy asked.

“You were only gone for like, a few seconds or so,” David replied. “We didn’t even have a chance to start the game yet. Josh was still picking a character”

“Oh great!” he said, picking up his controller. He turned it on and logged in, picking a character at random.

They played for a while before switching to the game Tommy called Go Go Mario Racers. It was a nice night, and by the end of it, David and Josh had stopped being so uncomfortable with each other and they’d all made a new friend. Most importantly, Tommy could use his powers again.

\---

#### Studying With Crafts

“I don’t get it,” Tommy stated simply.

“Okay, I’ll put it like this. The animals are communists,” David said, trying to simplify the topic. “and, like the Soviet Union, the farm became a dictatorship and it ended badly for everyone.”

“But why are they communists?! I mean I get that but why them?! Why animals?!”

“Because George Orwell wanted to call the Stalin regime pigs I think. That’s my take on it anyway,” David said, causing Tommy to laugh.

Since they’d become friends, David had become Tommy’s tutor. He’d missed all of his previous school year, which put him a fair bit behind the others, not even counting his difficulties with understanding things in class brought on by his ADHD which threw him even further behind because he hadn’t received the help he’d needed for most of his school career. It was difficult, and the going was slow, but they were making progress. Tommy liked to learn, he just couldn’t stand the boring ways of teaching most classrooms had, and it made learning difficult. That meant that David had to figure out creative ways to explain things. Which was why they were talking about _Animal Farm_ while sitting in David’s dorm room and making red and yellow crafts out of paper.

Tommy put the hat he’d made on his head. “I’m the king of Communism.”

“Tommy, that’s the exact thing Communism doesn’t want. Also you look way more like a pirate.”

“I’m the pirate of Communism.”

“No.”

There was a pause before they both snickered and David went back to explaining the book to him in terms that made sense to Tommy. For David, this was a good way to study and refresh his memory, for Tommy, this was a good way to learn new things. They were a good team, and Tommy was excellent at making David loosen up. Studying was usually so hard for Tommy, but Mr. Brainiac managed to make it easier.

\---

#### Training Time

The Danger Room had a reputation. It was scary, even on the easiest setting, it was what the name implied, dangerous, especially with the new upgrades. That said, it was the main way to give students and X-Men actual practice with their powers. Tommy hadn’t gotten the chance to enter it yet, because they wanted to wait until he could actually use his power. They gave him a basic uniform that looked like it might work well for him, and the professor pinned a little timer to it.

“Alright, Tommy, we set the level to one. I have full confidence that you can succeed. Just try your best,” Professor X said calmly.

“I will!” he replied, running out and to the door to the room.

The door opened and Tommy entered the room. It was blank when he did, but soon it booted up, showing a maze made of solid holographics. He knew his objective was to get to the other end as quickly as possible, and that there were dangers around every turn, but he was excited. As soon as the start sound rang out, he made things slow and took off. Around the first turn was a machine gun, a wonderful start. It was no big deal for him though, since the bullets were moving so slowly.

Around the next turn he had to choose left or right. He chose left, and rounded the corner. Dead end. Not only a dead end, but also a flame thrower. It didn’t really have time to get him though, as he noticed it and turned around before it could fully activate. Tommy ran around the other side and went around another corner. Another choice, another left. This one was the correct choice. Spinning saws came down, though with everything in slow motion it was much easier to get around than other people would find it.

He rounded the next corner and came face to face with another machine gun. Luckily, he noticed it in time and managed to dodge out of the way to continue on. Another choice, left, right, or forward. Tommy went forward. Dead end. Turn back, try left. Dead end. Try right. Correct. As he ran down the hallway, a metal grabbing arm reached out for him. He dodged it like he was playing limbo and ran straight on to the exit.

Tommy paused there to take a few breaths, mostly to slow his heart rate as the simulation disappeared. Afterwards, he went back up to the observation room. “How’d I do?”

“Your official time was 30.30. That’s about thirty seconds,” the Professor said, rolling over to him so that he could unpin the timer from the uniform. “How long would you say it took you?”

He had to think about it for a moment before saying, “I’m not very good at judging time, but I’d say about ten minutes?”

“Your timer here, that started at the same time as the official time, says 10:41.45 About ten minutes. Do you understand what that means?” the Professor asked, holding out the timer for him to see.

“Not really?” Tommy admitted, looking at the time. It was in fact 10:41.45.

“It means you truly are not a speedster. You have incredible endurance and a metabolism that match speed, but you aren’t inhumanly fast. You are actually altering time around yourself. You are, I believe, creating a field around yourself that causes time for you to go more quickly, though in your field you experience it the same as you would have if the field wasn’t there. I’m not sure the field has to be there, or that you have to do it on yourself, but that’s what practicing and experimentation is for.”

“Can you explain that simpler?” Tommy felt stupid for asking that, but that was a lot of words and comprehension was difficult.

“Simply put, you aren’t a speedster, you’re a time warper,” the Professor said in a tone that didn’t make him feel stupid. “You aren’t moving fast, you’re speeding yourself up through time.”

“Oh! Got it. That makes sense. No wonder the stuff those guys tried to do to me didn’t work. They had it wrong. Why did it make my hair turn white?”

“Mutations are mysterious things. Some things can’t be helped. I’m sure you’ve seen as much from other students here.”

Tommy nodded. “Thanks, Professor. Are we done?”

“We are done. You may go about your day. Thank you for coming,” he said, somewhat amused.

“Thanks bye!” Tommy replied quickly, running out of the room.

\---

#### FIGHT!!!

It was appropriately late when they met for the fight. They knew there was no good place to do it where the X-Men wouldn't see them and put a stop to it, but they agreed that by the gate would be a better option than down the hill at the lake. By the gate they were further from the school and had plenty of free space. Plus Julian could always fly them over the gate to run away for a while if they got caught.

Tommy had invited Josh along in case something went south. They'd kept this from the rest of the group because they knew the others wouldn't approve, and Josh felt like he owed Tommy for resolving some of the tension between him and the other students. Julian agreed to go alone, because Josh was there to heal either of them so it wasn't a secret team up. The fight was as fair as they could make it.

“Are you ready?” Julian asked.

“Yeah, I am so ready,” Tommy said, making the first move. He used his power as he ran up to him and punched him a few times in the chest. As he did that, a rock hit him in the back of the head, breaking his concentration and making things speed up again.

Julian clutched his chest as Tommy held his head. They gave each other a moment to recover before Julian pushed Tommy backwards with his telekinesis, into the wall. Tommy swore and when Julian stopped holding him there, he ran back up to him and punched him in the face a few times. He allowed things to speed up again so Julian could recover from that. When he did, he sent another rock headed for his head, which Tommy dodged. He didn't notice the behind him though, which hit him in the small of the back, then the first one spun around and hit him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him.

Tommy gasped for air and Julian gave him a moment to catch his breath. Once he did, he ran towards Julian and slowed things down as he grabbed Julian's shirt collar and pulled him to the ground. Speeding things up again, he looked down at him. As he did, a rock hit him in the back of the head again, then another flew at him which he dodged expertly as it sailed onward somewhere in the distance with a crash.

“Nice,” Julian said.

“Thanks. You're doing pretty well yourself,” Tommy replied.

“A little loud,” he added, looking a little guilty even though he was amused.

“They already know what we're up to and are probably on their way to stop us,” Tommy shrugged.

“Right,” Julian agreed, pushing Tommy away from him again with his powers and lifting himself up into the air about two feet. Tommy went in for a groin punch and Julian couldn't react quick enough in slow time, resulting in him losing his concentration and falling to the ground. In retribution for that, he threw Tommy into the wall around the school again and held him there until he recovered.

Free, Tommy rushed forward to-

“Excuse me?” said a girl's voice, causing all three boys to freeze and look at the gate. There was indeed a girl on the other side, with short hair and dirty clothes that made her look homeless. Josh waved at her a little, which she returned. “This is the school for mutants? Can I come in?”

Julian brushed her off. “We're a little busy here, can't you see? Besides, we don't take in homeless people.”

Tommy glared at him. “I think Josh and I would disagree with that.”

“You two don't count. Josh was handed over by his parents and you were rescued by the X-Men,” Julian dismissed.

“And neither of us have anywhere else to go, Mr. Rich-Boy-Who-Probably-Has-Never-Seen-A-Trailer-Park-In-His-Life,” Tommy said, crossing his arms.

“Whatever, I'm out. Have fun playing with Trash,” Julian replied, heading back to the school.

Tommy rolled his eyes before turning back to the girl. “We're both new, so we don't know what to do with the gate, but teachers will be here any second, and they'll let you in. What's your name?”

“Noriko. What about you?” she asked.

“Oh, I'm Tommy, that's Josh,” he said.

Josh waved again. “Hi, Noriko. Do you have a nickname?”

“Nori,” she said as the boys heard footsteps coming up behind them.

“What exactly is going on-... Julian is gone, and you've made a new friend,” Ms. Pryde said. “I'll deal with you two in a minute. Miss, what's your name?”

“I'm Noriko, Nori.”

“Alright, Nori, are you a mutant?” she asked, nearing the gate.

“Yes I am. I can't really control it. I release electricity and hurt people without meaning to.”

Kitty reached through the gate and gently pulled Nori through. “That's okay, we'll help you figure that part out. Being a mutant is hard, I used to fall through floors.”

Nori laughed a little. “Thank you.”

“And as for you two and Julian, he isn't getting away with this even though he left the scene, will have detention all next week. If you want to fight, you need to go through the teachers so it can be done safely and for training. Now, you two go to bed. Nori, you come with me, okay?”

“Goodnight, Ms. Pryde,” Josh said, clearly upset about the trouble he was in.

“Yeah, goodnight, Kitty. And Nori!” Tommy added, dragging Josh towards the door.

“Yeah, and Nori, goodnight!” Josh agreed. As soon as they were out of earshot he healed Tommy's bruises and whispered, “Will we be able to keep this whole thing from the others?”

“Nah, everyone's gonna ask how Nori got here and it'll come out that Julian and I were fighting. We don't stand a chance,” Tommy said with a laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I am not in track, so everything that is mentioned about track in this fic is from research.  
> \- These characters show up occasionally, but if you don't remember all of them every time they do, I feel you.  
> \- Julian challenged him because he likes to cause a ruckus and Tommy agreed because he is also a hooligan.  
> \- Tommy likes to call things by the wrong name, this is a running thing.  
> \- There is not a set conversion for his time vs normal time because he can do it at different speeds.  
> \- In the comics, David and Josh did not get along originally, which is why he didn't like him here.  
> \- This fic goes off of him being a time manipulator, this plays a fair bit of a role later on in the plot.  
> \- Originally Julian turned Nori away at the gate and led to a whole thing where the New Mutants Squad track her   
>  down, this did not happen in this fic.


	5. The Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy gets a shock, squads are a thing now, Wither gets arrested, Wither leaves the squad, the crew goes to a Queen tribute concert and Wolverine threatens them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I POSTED THE SIXTH CHAPTER BEFORE THE FIFTH SORRY WORKING ON FIXING THAT. Okay it's fixed phew. After not getting a chapter all semester, here are two chapters in one day! Hope it all works out.

#### Who The @#$% Are The Young Avengers?

It was a peaceful late Saturday morning, fall was starting to settle in on the state and some of the students were outside playing football or simply enjoying the cooling temperatures. Most were still in bed, however, having a lazy weekend morning. Tommy, for his part, was up, eating a bowl of cereal on a couch with David reading beside him. The warm fall light streamed in from the window behind them, and reflected on the television neither of them were paying too much attention to, because it was on the news station and neither of them felt like getting up to grab the remote.

“...the Young Avengers, but as of now they seem to just be a group of teens with powers who are fans of the Avengers and want to help people in their name,” the news anchor said, catching Tommy’s attention.

Young Avengers? What kind of nerdy name is that? He looked up from his cereal to see the picture on the screen. “Holy SHIT!”

“What?” David asked, jumping. They had been quiet for a while and the sudden exclamation was not expected.

Tommy grabbed the remote and paused the show. “Dude stole my face!”

“What?!” he asked again, looking at the television. Sure enough, there was a guy on the screen that looked eerily like Tommy, except with dark hair instead of white. “Do you have a brother?”

“I don’t think so? If I do, I don’t know why my parents would have kept that from me. What the hell! He stole my face!” Tommy exclaimed. He was on the verge of freaking out, seeing that guy that looked like him. There was just no reason for them to look so similar. Tommy knew there were many possible reasons but he just had this feeling...

“I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation. Maybe he just looks similar. There’s plenty of people in the world that look similar to each other without being related,” David said, trying to calm the situation.

“Dude looks like he’s another skin for the same video game character! He’s a freaking pod person! Look at him! This isn't some normal whatever. He looks like me! What the hell!” Tommy said as he paced and did his usual rhythmic thing with his fingers to try to calm down.

“He really does look like a different video game skin,” David agreed with a chuckle. “That’s so weird. I have no idea.”

Tommy hit play again, and the news anchor continued. He plopped down into his seat again, sprawled out on the couch in protest of this insanity. “They are apparently calling themselves, in order from left to right on your screen, the Asgardian, Hulkling, Patriot, and Iron Lad.”

“Asgardian?! What is he, a Thor fanboy?! What sort of nerd names themselves like that?!” Tommy cried, waving his hand at the television.

“That nerd, apparently,” David said, returning to his book. “I’m sure it’s nothing, Tommy, and if it isn’t, then it’ll end up coming around eventually.”

“I know but seriously, what the hell. What the hell! That’s so weird,” Tommy replied, watching the rest of the segment before changing the channel to cartoons in hopes of taking his mind off of it.

\---

#### Squads?!

“In order to better train you guys, the school is reorganizing how they train the students,” Dani said. She’d called the students she advised into her office to talk about this new thing everyone was buzzing about. “There will instead be squads, like mini X-Men teams led by an adviser, with between five and seven members.”

The room was silent, nervous. They were terrified of being separated, both from each other and from Dani. If they were spending so much time with their squads, doing team building and training, they wouldn't have as much time to spend together. And they loved Dani! She had been like a group mom for them from the start, even adopting Josh when his parents didn't want him anymore. They didn't want to leave her because of some new and stupid rule.

“Let me cut to the chase. Are we being split up into squads?” David asked, crossing his arms.

“Are you being put into squads? Yes. Are you being split up? No. Of course not. You’re my kids. And I like being your adviser. I turned down being an X-Man to be here. They’re not taking you from me. Don’t worry,” Dani said comfortingly. “No, you seven are going to be a squad, advised by me.” She smiled. “You are the New Mutants Squad, and I’ve prepared code names for each of you. David, your name will be Prodigy, and I want you to be the leader of the Squad.”

David hesitated. “I like the name, but I don’t want to be the leader. I don’t think I can do that right now.”

“Alright then, Sofia, will you?”

“Yes, ma’am. Only if David is sure,” Sofia said, looking at her friend again.

“I’m sure,” David replied quickly.

“Then Sofia will lead the team. Your code name will be Wind Dancer,” Dani said. “Kevin, you will be called Wither. Laurie, you are Wallflower. Nori, Surge. Josh, your code name will be Elixir, and Tommy, you are Velocity. You all have a choice in this though, if you don’t like your name you can decide a different one.”

“I suck at naming things, so I probably would have just chosen something like Speed or whatever if you hadn’t come up with that, so I’ll go with what you said,” Tommy joked.

The rest of the team was in general agreement as well, and Dani gave them each matching uniforms. Tommy’s was designed to work well as he ran, yellow and white and shiny like the others with matching goggles so that his eyes were protected as he ran. There were white stripes down the inside of the arms that went onto the body of the suit and yellow crossed over the white to make an X. On the chest, there was a dark gray X symbol as well, and the legs of the suit matched the other’s, as did the yellow gloves. It was a nice suit, but he felt that the color wasn’t the best for him.

Everyone else's also matched their personalities while being in similar enough style to recognize them as part of a team. Kevin had to wear his usual clothes so that they didn't fall apart, so he looked very dark compared to them. Still, David got a long white coat with a uniform matching Josh's otherwise. Nori got a short top with baggy pants while Sofia had the same top with tight pants, while Laurie had a sweater with the tighter pants.

They were practically real heroes now it felt like. They had matching suits and everything. Tommy hadn’t cared either way about being a hero before this, preferring to help people in other ways, but now that he actually felt like one, he felt like that was right. This was what he was supposed to do, he knew it. 

\---

#### Wither Troubles

“KEVIN IS GETTING ARRESTED BY THE FBI WE HAVE TO GO!” Nori shouted as she threw open the door to David’s dorm. She clearly had not expected them to be covered in paint brush swipes while seemingly attempting to fight with the paint instead of painting the actual scenes on the canvases they were working on.

“Wait what’s happening?” David asked, standing up and trying to wipe off some of the pain and only succeeding in smearing it more.

“Kevin was arrested and taken away by the FBI. The Hellions are trying to go get him back. We have to go stop them!” Nori explained.

“I’m not dealing with the cops,” Tommy said. “Not the FBI, not regular cops. Cops didn’t like me before I got my powers, they’ll hate me now.”

“We won’t have to deal with them if we can stop the Hellions in time. We need to go now,” Nori said, running out.

The boys looked at each other for a second before scrambling to put on their costumes, hoping the paint on their faces wouldn’t be noticeable. “Should I run up ahead of them and try to hold them off, or head over with you guys?” Tommy asked when he returned to David after changing.

“Go ahead, hold them off. We’ll never catch up to them if you d-”

Tommy didn’t hear the rest of what David said as he used his power and took off running. It didn’t take long to find the Hellions in their car, though the FBI’s car was out of view from where they were. Thinking quickly, he ran further ahead and dragged a large rock into the road. Speeding things back up again, he stood to the side as the Hellions quickly slowed to a stop so that they didn’t run into the rock.

They got out of the car and slammed the doors closed. “What the hell, Thomas!” Julian cried. “We’re trying to rescue your friend! I thought someone with your record would agree with us.”

“First of all, it’s Tommy, or Velocity right now since I’m suited up. Second, because of my record, I don’t want to get involved with any sort of cops. I don’t want to fight them, don’t want to interact with them. It never ends well. I don’t want to go to juvie again. The places they send mutants aren’t good,” Velocity explained.

“And you’ll condemn your friend to that?!” Julian shouted back.

“When it comes to legal stuff, adults are better at dealing with it. The X-Men will know what to do, they’ll fix this. The last thing we need is to get in trouble right now!”

Santo hit the car with his rocky fist, leaving a dent. “He’s a mutant! We can’t let another mutant get taken by the police!”

“Yeah, he’s one of us! Who knows what they’ll do to him!” Cessily agreed.

“I know!” Tommy shouted. “I know exactly what they’ll do to him because I know for a fact that they do the same kinda stuff there that they did to me! Or, they’ll decide he’s enough of a danger and turn him into a weapon! I know exactly the kinds of things they’ll put him through because I went through them!”

That silenced them for a moment before Julian said, “Then why won’t you let us stop them? He doesn’t need to go through that too. Nobody should.”

“I agree! And he won’t the X-Men won’t let it happen, they’ll work it out. I’m sure they’ve had something like this happen before. We have to trust them, or else we won’t have anything,” Tommy said.

“We’re heroes now too! We have to do our part!” Cessily shouted.

It was then that the rest of the New Mutant Squad arrived. “Being a hero doesn’t mean attacking agents doing their job!” Wind Dancer said.

“Now, that’s not what I’m saying,” Tommy said. “Plenty of people doing their job do terrible things. But this is something the X-Men should deal with! They’re the teachers! It’s their job!”

“We don’t want him to go to jail either, but getting in trouble with the FBI will only cause more problems for the school that we really don’t need,” David agreed, “please stand down.”

“Never!” Santo shouted, running forward.

Taking the hint, Hellion uprooted a tree and swung it at the New Mutant Squad. Velocity pulled them out of the way in time, but couldn’t avoid Rockslide’s fist hitting him in the cheek and sending him spiraling to the ground. Mercury turned her fist into a sledge hammer and swung it at Elixir, but Surge caught it before she could land the hit, and sent electricity shooting through her, causing her to lose shape and scream.

Dust clearly didn’t want to be in this fight, but didn’t know what options she had, so she turned into a dust storm. Seeing this, Wind Dancer blew the dust up into the air and held it there with the wind. Wallflower sent out pheromones in an attempt to make them fall asleep, but only Hellion seemed particularly hazy because of it. That left him open to a well placed punch from Prodigy, and a swift swiping kick to knock him to the ground. Elixir ran over and tapped Velocity, healing his mild concussion brought on by the hard punch.

Before anything else could be done, another car pulled up behind them, and Shadowcat, Cyclops, Storm, and White Queen exited it. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing. Sofia released Sooraya, who returned to her clothes and human form. Cessily also returned to her human form, and helped Julian stand.

“What the hell is going on?” Scott said, closing the car door.

“They were trying to stop the FBI, we were stopping them,” David explained, adjusting his glasses.

Emma sighed. “We’ll talk about this later. All of you go back to campus. Now.”

Not wanting to be told twice and risk getting in trouble, the Hellions got back in their car, and turned around, heading back to school. The New Mutant Squad started the trek back to campus just as quickly, taking their time once they were out of view from the X-Men who got back in their car and continued on.

“I think that went well,” Josh said. “I think we could have beaten them if we had a little more time.”

“They were going easy on us, and after this, they’re going to be twice as hard. If we don’t practice, they’ll destroy us,” David stated.

“Still though, not bad for a first team thing. Minus Kevin I mean,” Tommy said.

“That’s true! Kevin will understand, right? He won’t be mad at us?” Laurie asked.

None of them responded, because they were fairly certain that he was going to be angry with them. Surely they could work it out though, right? He was their friend, he would know they didn’t have any mean intentions behind trying to stop people from saving him.

\---

#### Jay Joins

Kevin was very upset with them. He wouldn't talk to anyone from the group except Laurie and had asked to be transferred to the Hellions. Given the circumstances, the transfer had been approved, and Jay was brought into the New Mutants Squad. Given the fact that he was friends with the New Mutants, the Hellions didn't trust his loyalties to the group and it had caused some conflict. It only made sense to swap the two.

The loss of Kevin was strange for them. He'd been their friend for a while, but he'd never really stuck to them like they'd done to each other. He'd always kept a distance, both for their safety and his own reasons. He was their friend, and they missed talking to him, but it wasn't as big of a loss as it could have been. Plus, they all loved Jay. Tommy had introduced him to them way back at the beginning of the year and he'd stuck to them in ways Kevin never had. It was exciting that he was joining them! 

“I cannot believe we have two people on the team named Josh,” Tommy said. They were supposed to be looking at Jay's new uniform, but Tommy was a bit distracted by the circumstances.

“I know right? What are the odds?” Jay said with a laugh.

“You look good in the uniform by the way,” Laurie said quietly. “You look better in yellow than red.”

“Thanks! This uniform is way cooler than my old one too,” Jay agreed. It was sleeveless like his old one, but matched the style of their uniforms, including the gloves. The red odd his old suit had made him look very very red, with his hair and his wings being the same color. This uniform was much lighter and brighter, and didn't make him look like he was entirely red.

“Not as cool as David's white Matrix coat,” Tommy teased.

David rolled his eyes. “The coat is cool.”

“Whatever you say, Neo.” Tommy got some laughs for that one.

“Welcome to the team, Icarus,” Sofia said, crossing her arms and smiling.

“I’m happy to be here,” he replied, matching her smile.

\---

#### Sneaking Out

David typed into his computer as the others watched tensely. After another minute passed he looked up at them and nodded. They quickly scrambled out the door as David packed his computer back into his backpack and ran after them. “We have five minutes,” he whispered.

None of them responded, too busy running to the gate. Tommy got there first, and pulled the gate open so that when they got there, all they had to do was run through. He closed it behind them and picked one up at a time and ran them around the next bend in the road. As he got the last one around the corner, the system went back to normal, and they all breathed a sigh of relief that they had gotten out in time.

The twenty minute walk into town was dark and quiet, save for their chatter. They eventually got to their destination, Harry’s Hideaway. The bar was staying open for minors that night so that the youths in the area could go to the concert. A pretty popular Queen cover band was playing there, and Harry’s could use as many customers as it could get after all. They sat down at a booth in the back and ordered sodas and mozzarella sticks as they waited for the concert to start.

“Oh no,” Sofia whispered.

“What?” Josh asked in a louder tone. The concert might not have started but it still wasn’t a quiet place.

“Wolverine,” she said, loud enough to be heard over the music. She pointed in his direction.

The man was sitting at the bar and staring at them with his arms crossed, a beer in one hand.

“I knew this was a bad idea!” David said, pulling his hat down over his face.

“Guys, it’s Wolverine. He’s more likely to let us stay and then walk us back, and not write us up because of the paperwork, than he is to drag us home right now and give us detention forever,” Jay said calmly.

“Why is he just staring at us?!” Laurie whispered fearfully.

“Maybe he’s trying to decide how to fillet us,” Nori joked.

Tommy looked over at Wolverine again, and raised his glass in greeting. Wolverine returned the gesture before shaking his head and turning back towards the bar. “See, we’re fine.”

“I swear to god, if you guys ruin my record, I’m divorcing you all,” David muttered.

“Nah, you wouldn't. You love us too much,” Tommy said, winking at him. David just rolled his eyes and sipped on his soda.

Soon the band took the stage, and the atmosphere of the place grew more energized. The squad sang along to the songs, eventually ending up standing with everyone else as they rocked out. Even Ms. Shy was enjoying herself, though this wasn’t her usual scene. She also seemed to be using it as a chance to spend time with Josh, which Tommy thought might be of note.

“Can anybody find me somebody to love?” Tommy sang along, accidentally running into David as he did. They both froze and looked at each other as the song and the concert continued on around them. Tommy almost thought he’d slowed down time on accident, everything seemed to be in slow motion around them, but the music was still playing in the background which told him otherwise Unable take the tension anymore, he pushed David away and laughed, going back to singing along.

David was still looking at him though, for another moment, then shook his head and joined in with less enthusiasm. The others didn’t seem to notice the whole thing though, distracted by the music and in the case of Josh and Laurie, each other. Wolverine was just sitting at the bar and ignoring the concert it seemed. That was fine. Nobody needed to see that he was flustered.

When the concert was over, the crowd dispersed, and the team tried to disappear into it, but Nori was grabbed by the collar of her coat and pulled back, causing everyone to stay behind because they were all holding onto each other’s hands so they wouldn’t get seperated. Wolverine crossed his arms and looked at them each in turn. “You’re out past curfew. I’m going to give each of you detention forever.”

“We really wanted to see the concert! It’s not everyday that one shows up in town!” Sofia protested.

“Plus it was Queen! And minors were allowed in after the usual cut off time! We had to come,” Jay said. “We shouldn’t have broken the rules but it was justified!”

Logan was silent for a solid minute before huffing out a chuckle. “I’m not gonna write you guys up. It was Queen, and you didn’t cause any trouble. You’re good kids, I don’t see the point. If you want to do this again, tell me first, so I can take the fall for it. If you don’t, I will write you up, because that’s just rude to me. You’ll also have to tell us tomorrow how you managed to get out, because that’s a whole in our security that needs to be patched.”

“Will do, sir. Thank you for being understanding,” David said quietly.

The man nodded and waved for them to follow him. “Let’s get back to campus before they actually realize you’re missing.” He led them down the road towards the school. “You know, I once accidentally ended up on a date with Freddie Mercury.”

“Wait-”  
“What?”  
“How?”

They did not get an answer. It was his punishment for them breaking the rules.


	6. The Normalcy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group talks about relationships, goes to a farm, watches Tommy dance like a chicken, celebrate a surprise party, visit a mom, and watch a news coverage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry about the lack of updates! College is a bitch I swear. The semester is about over now so regular updates should pick back up over the summer! I did get an internship though, and with other irl things on top of my ADHD being a jerk at times, chapters may be delayed at times, but trust me this isn't abandoned, it was just on pause because when you are a History Major, most of what you're doing is writing and it makes it difficult to write for fun.  
> Warning, Mother Dearest has somewhat references of past child abuse and generally Tommy's mother being a Bitch.

#### Relationship Drama

Tommy shoved another cookie in his mouth as he listened to the enfolding drama. Apparently, Kevin still liked Laurie, and she liked him, but she also like Josh, who kind of liked her and kind of liked Rahne who most of the group agreed was too old for him, even if she was technically still a teen. Tommy was just enjoying the drama of it all, listening but not taking part in the conversation. It was Too Serious For Jokes, so said Sofia.

“She’s years older than you! Even if Laurie decides not to date you, you shouldn’t date Rahne. Date a fellow student!” Sofia said. “You’ll regret it in the future, I’ve seen it before.”

“I agree, she’s a real adult, she’s going to turn twenty soon. You’re nowhere near there,” David agreed.

“I know I know,” Josh sighed.

“And she’s an X-Man! There’s no way the relationship can be evenly balanced,” Jay said as he tuned his guitar.

They were all sitting in his and Tommy’s room, enjoying fresh baked cookies and milk. Tommy was having fun listening to the drama, but he knew he’d get bored of it soon, so he bided his time. He was sitting on his bed, playing with a rubix cube, with David sitting at the other side of it. They hadn’t talked about the concert, and clearly they weren’t going to, since neither of them had mentioned it yet during Drama Hour. Laurie and Sofia were sitting on the window seat, painting their nails while Nori sat nearby, rubbing her forehead at the whole thing. Josh was sitting on the ground by Jay’s bed, and was clearly getting uncomfortable that all the attention was on him.

“Yeah, I know, I get it. But she’s so cool! I like that she’s a little wild,” Josh admitted.

Tommy sat up straight. “Okay, ew ew ew I did not need to hear that.”

“That wasn’t a- I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Still! Jeez man. Just, no. Don’t do it. She’ll only hurt you. I’ve heard talk about her. She’s nice enough but she’s not gonna be good for you. Let her go. Find someone else,” Tommy said.

“You say that like it’s easy to drop a crush!” Josh exclaimed.

Tommy shrugged. “I’ve done it plenty of times. People suck, man. They really suck. Just let it go.”

Josh sighed. “Alright, alright, you guys win. I’ll try not to have a crush on her anymore.” There was a general cheer from the rest of the group as they continued what they were doing.

“Does anyone else want their nails painted before we put the polish away?” Sofia asked. “I know you don’t want to, Nori, but do any of you guys want your nails painted?”

The boys were silence as they thought about it before Jay shrugged and put his guitar down. “Sure, do you have black or red?”

“I have both, do you want a design?” Laurie asked.

“Sure!” he replied, sitting down on the ground between them. Everyone except Nori ended that day with nail polish on their fingers. Laurie seemed glad that the conversation had shifted away from her. Tommy was glad nobody had asked him about what his drama was. It wasn't like he could answer that question anyway.

\---

#### Farm Adventure

As fall was upon the state of New York, Dani decided to take her kids on a field trip. She called beforehand to ask if she could bring her students and had received the owner's approval. Dani had the kids get in the van without telling them where they were going, as an attempt to surprise them, but being as they were teens, their first reaction was to say:

“You're gonna murder us all, aren't you?” Josh asked. 

“We're all going to die!” Tommy said dramatically.

“I won't, you guys are screwed,” Jay retorted.

“I've come too far to die now!” Sofia exclaimed.

“I don't want to die young,” Laurie said in a sad tone.

“Do it. I dare you,” Nori said, gently tapping Dani's shoulder from the seat behind her.

“I'm already dead. Inside,” David said, straight faced.

“I'm not killing any of you unless you stop that!” she threatened. “We're going to a farm with a corn maze and a pumpkin patch and a haunted hayride. I thought you guys would enjoy it.”

“Oh yeah that sounds fun,” Tommy agreed, immediately changing tone.

“I don't know if I want to go on the hayride…” Laurie said, looking down. She was sitting in the back with Jay and Sofia.

“I'll stay back with you so you won't have to be alone,” Dani said. Beside her was David, doing navigation for her.

Behind him, Tommy was kicking his chair. “Hey, David, David, David.”

“The next exit is yours. Yeah, Tommy?”

“I bet I can carve a better pumpkin than you,” Tommy said.

David turned to look at him and said, “Yeah, I'll take that bet. Loser has to buy the winner a candy bar.”

“You're on!”

“We'll bring the pumpkins home and carve them on campus. I don't trust students with sharp things off campus,” Dani said.

They arrived soon enough and Dani sorted everything out for them to explore. There weren’t many people there, which they all assumed was planned. It made sense from both Dani and the farmer’s point of view, less likely to accidentally cause a scene if there were less people to cause a scene. They decided to do the maze first, the pumpkin patch second, and then have dinner before the haunted hayride.

The corn maze was about as interesting as those places usually were, meaning it was muddy as all get out and had some decorations here and there. It also lacked anyone keeping an eye on it, meaning they could do just about whatever they wanted. In this case, that meant Marco Polo while running around through the corn.

“Marco!” Nori called, some distance away.

“Polo!” Tommy, Josh, Jay, and Laurie shouted back from different places around the maze.

“Marco!” David called, far too close for Tommy’s comfort.

“Polo!” they shouted back, though Tommy tried to be quieter this time.

“Marco!” called Sofia, sounding pretty close to where Jay’s voice had come from.

“Polo!” they shouted back again. Tommy didn’t want to take the risk again and dashed through the corn to the next pathway. As he did, he ran right into David, who was standing there with his arms crossed like he’d been waiting for Tommy to do exactly that.

“You were expecting me to do that,” Tommy stated. It wasn’t a question.

“I do my homework,” David said, raising an eyebrow and smirking at him.

“Marco!” called Dani, sounding somewhere in the middle of the maze. The chased gave their response. Somewhere, Jay sounded like he got tackled.

Tommy laughed. “Alright, alright, you caught me. Let’s find the others.”

David paused again, he’d been doing a lot of that, before nodding. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?” Tommy asked.

“Marco!” Nori called. Only Laurie and Josh called back.

“No! No no no I’m just being weird. Don’t worry about it,” David said, frowning. Tommy didn’t like that.

“If there’s an issue, you can tell me. You’re my best friend, if I did something to upset you, I wanna know what I can do to fix it,” Tommy said seriously.

“It’s nothing, you’re fine, I’m fine. It’s just me overthinking everything ever to exist in the universe,” David explained. “Let’s do back to the game.”

“Marco!” Jay called with a laugh. The same pair called back.

“If you say so…” Tommy replied, pulling his hood up and pulling the strings so it made his face disappear, which got a laugh from David. Mission accomplished.

“MARCO!” Tommy called as loudly as he could, getting another laugh from David. As soon as he heard the responses he grabbed David’s wrist and started pulling him in Josh’s direction, as he close and Laurie sounded like she was on the other side of the maze. It didn’t take long for them to corner Josh, who took his only option left and ran into the corn. Tommy laughed and followed after him, David having disappearing somehow. He chased Josh around another corner, where he ran into David. From the other side of the maze, it sounded like Laurie was also caught.

They were tired of their game and moved on to the pumpkin patch. After half an hour of comparing each other to the ugliest pumpkins, or in Laurie’s cause, being compared to the smallest pumpkins they could find, they bought their choices and took them back to the car. The farm had a little store set up, along with a food truck. Dani bought each of them what they wanted to eat, and three things from the shop, which turned out to be them going back to the car with many maple flavored candies.

Finally, it was time to go on the hayride. Dani and Laurie sat out because Laurie didn’t want to go on it. The rest of the group got on the wagon and huddled together as the night was chilling more than they’d expected it to. As they pulled away, the driver started yelling over the motor of the tractor, telling them a spooky story that supposedly happened on the farm. They stopped in front of a run down old house, and the man continued the story. Behind them, a man started screaming at them and waving around a large fake knife. They jumped, their training making them better adapted for this, but it was startling nevertheless. The actor actually seemed surprised by their lack of response.

This trend continued for the rest of the ride. It wasn’t that they didn’t enjoy it, or weren’t spooked, they were just more well trained for surprises and so they were not screaming their heads off every time something moved. They returned in good spirits, and Dani bought them all cider before the group headed home.

\---

#### Quentin’s Revenge

_Hey, remember when you flicked me in class?_

Tommy tried to speak up to his friends that Quentin was talking in his head, but found he was unable. In fact, he seemed to be frozen in place. His friends noticed that and asked him what was wrong, but he couldn’t exactly answer them.

_Payback, dumbass._

Out of the driver’s seat, Tommy sat his sandwich down on his tray and stood up, walking through the cafeteria to the stage. He climbed up on stage which had conveniently placed buckets on it. Pouring the first one, some terrible smelling black goop over his head, Tommy internally winced. These clothes were going to end up in the trash. At this point, people in the cafeteria started to take notice of him, and the usual chatter turned into confused chatter as they talked about what was happening. Tommy then poured the other bucket, white feathers, over his head, covering him like he was some old fashion criminal.

At that point, he began to sing and do the chicken dance. Tommy had to admire the guy’s commitment as he experienced this, and resisted the urge to plan anything until he felt the control leave him. People in the room were laughing, and he know he looked like a fool, but he didn’t feel too badly because there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

Sure, he could feel super embarrassed by the whole thing, but why should he? It wasn't like this was his own doing, and his classmates were enjoying the show. Yeah, he looked like a fool, but he'd always been the class clown, why should that bother him? There was nothing wrong with comedy, unless it was at the expense of others. This technically was at the expense of him, but it was going to be fine.

As soon as Quentin finished and gave him control back so that he could be properly mortified by this display, he instead continued and shouted, “This is a prank! Copyright Quentin Quire, aka the hottest shit on campus!” When he was finished, he made a show of being terribly shocked and embarrassed by the whole event. Dani ran onto the stage and quickly escorted him off as the voices of teachers yelled Quentin’s name from behind him.

 _Oh fuck you._  
Tommy laughed and replied, _Oh no, my good bitch, fuck you._

\---

#### Happy Halloween

“I still can't believe your birthday is on Halloween,” Laurie said. “Out of all of the days in the year, you were born on Halloween night. You're spooky!”

“I am spooky, yes. That's why my hair is white,” Tommy said in a serious tone before cracking up. “Seriously though, I've never really celebrated my birthday. It's no big deal that you guys didn't know.”

They turned around the next corner into their usual lounge, and Tommy threw on the lights. As soon as he did, people jumped up from all over the place yelling, “Surprise!” which caused Tommy to clutch his heart from the start. The room was decorated like there was a party going on, but with a Halloween theme. Inside the room, his friends and many of the teachers who cared about him were there.

When Tommy didn't unfreeze immediate and start reacting cheerfully, they all seemed to grow worried. “Tommy?” Laurie asked. “Are you okay? Did we do the wrong thing?”

Tommy shook his head and wiped at his eyes, trying to keep it together. “No, I just… you guys organized a surprise party for me. You guys put all that work in to throw me a birthday party.” He wished his voice would stop shaking so much, and that his eyes would behave.

“Of course we did,” Dani said, gently putting a hand on his shoulder. “We love you, Tommy, you're part of our family.”

He broke down even further at that and kept rubbing at his eyes. “I don't think I've ever had a birthday anything before.”

“Oh, Tommy,” Dani whispered, hugging him tightly. She stroked his back as he cried for a minute, he was sure that was very awkward for everyone attending the party, before he calmed down. “We'll have have to make up for that today.”

She guided him in to sit on the couch, and someone handed him a glass of water, which he sipped on. It took him another few minutes to deal with the shock of the event. When he did, they started to party for real. There were games and there was cake and presents, which made him tear up again. The whole thing felt like a dream, especially with the Halloween music on in the background.

It was amazing, it was so amazing. Tommy felt happy and loved and the stuff he got as presents were things they thought he'd like, rather than things he needed. He had no idea how to process the event. It was all a blur of happiness and positivity, and though he couldn't remember many specifics, he thought it might have been his happiest memory.

\---

#### Mother Dearest

“Hey, Dani? Are you busy?” Tommy asked as he gently knocked on the door.

“No! Come in!” she replied from inside.

He entered her office and closed the door behind him, before sitting down in front of her desk nervously. “I have a request… Maybe that's not the right word. I… I don't know.”

“What is it, Tommy?” Dani asked, her smile fading due to the clearly serious nature of the conversation.

“I want to go home. Back to my mom's place I mean. Not to stay, just to see if any of my stuff is still there. I know she might have thrown everything out, but if she didn't, I'd really like to have my own stuff back,” he said, not making eye contact with her.

Tommy knew that she knew how much of a mess his home life had been between the divorce and the mutation. His parents had never really been kind. The fact that she knew that meant she knew how much it signified that Tommy wanted to go back there for any reason at all. Tommy wasn't sure what the significance was exactly, but he knew it was there.

“I'll ask some of the other teachers, then you and I can go over there and see. Do you think we should call ahead of time?” Dani asked already texting what Tommy assumed was the teacher's group chat.

“If we call before, she won't let us in,” he said. “If we catch her off guard she'll let us inside.”

“Alright, I got approval. We'll go Friday after classes end, does that sound alright?” Dani asked.

Tommy stood and stretched. “Yeah, she won't be home until after five though.” 

“We'll get there after five then,” Dani said.

The week blurred by as Tommy anxiously waited for Friday. His friends noticed the change, but he wouldn't explain anything. When the day came, they climbed on the jet and headed to New Jersey with Kitty and Storm driving.

Being back in Springfield was crazy. He remembered all those years of walking the streets and causing trouble. It wasn't big, and more run down than Salem Center. Nothing had changed in the time he'd been gone, but he'd changed a great deal. His mother's house was exactly the same as it had ever been. Same roofed patio that he'd climb onto from his window to sneak out. Same overgrown yard and poor attempt at a garden. Same peeling, faded paint and old Ford in the driveway.

He hesitated when he got to the door, his fist ready to knock. Tommy knew she was home. If he knocked, she would answer the door and see them. See him. Dani placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, and he finally knocked.

A moment of tension passed before the door swung open. His mother was clearly surprised when she saw them there before getting a grip of herself. “Did you guys fix him like you said you would? His hair is still white.”

That stung. He remembered his mother handing him over to those people, but she clearly had no regrets about doing so.

“Actually, the X-Men rescued him from that place and he has been living with us there. He would like to collect his things from his room, and then never come back here again,” Dani said, squeezing his shoulder gently.

She stared at them for a minute before sighing. “I don't want two muties walking around my house, but if it'll get him out of my life for good? Fine.”

“Thank you,” Dani said pushing past the woman and having Tommy lead her to his room.

He was shaking by the time they reached it. Tommy sat on his bed with his hands over his face, trying to settle his nerves. She was terrible. She was just terrible. He knew Dani was very angry about the whole conversation, but she was acting calm while he took a few breaths. Once he was calm enough, he started packing up everything he wanted to keep into the suitcases they brought.

It was taking far too long in his opinion, but he was so scared of using his power there to speed up the job that he didn't. Dani helped pack anything he sat on the bed to speed the process up. After they finished, they carried the cases downstairs and prepared to leave without a word.

“Wait!” his mother called. She walked over to them and handed Dani an envelope. “That's all of his documents. If you want to make the transfer of custody official, my ex-husband and I will do it.”

“Thank you,” Dani said, giving the woman a nod before leaving with Tommy on her heels. He didn't say anything to his mother as he left. There wasn't much he could say.

\---

#### YA Alien Attack

The air hockey table was destroyed on an almost weekly basis. This meant that you had to take advantage of it while it was there, because the weeks it wasn't being destroyed, it had already been destroyed. At most you had three days, depending on when the table returned, sometimes less. The stress of being able to use it or not had begun to increase the frequency of its destruction, and it caused great conflict on campus.

Tommy had considered himself the king of air hockey since before his powers manifested. Any time he'd been around a table, he'd crushed everyone he went against. With Nori though, he'd met his match. She was also extremely good at air hockey, more so than most of the others in the group. They battled it out any time they could, high speed, probably too high speed since they had been the cause of one of the destructions.

As they were playing, they heard quick footsteps sprinting to the room. Josh ran in and scrambled over to the television, turning it on and switching to the news as fast as possible. On the screen, a live video was playing of those Young Avengers people fighting aliens. There were more of them now, and the old ones had changed costumes.

The one that looked like him was in the thick of the fight. Tommy stopped the game to go over and watch. He'd never met the guy, but they looked so similar. As Tommy had continued to regain weight, they'd become even more identical, even though Tommy's hair was still much shorter. Tommy had kept somewhat up to date on the team's activities, feeling some sort of connection to that guy.

He stared at the screen, transfixed as the camera displayed the fight. The cameraman seemed too close to the fight to seem safe, but they also didn't seem to be going anywhere. It was so strange to watch these people fight, especially the kids their age who were fighting aliens alongside the Avengers. An explosion went off near the cameraman, causing bits of debris to fly up and apparently break the camera.

As soon as the video was gone, Tommy turned off the TV and sighed, rubbing his eyes. He had no idea who the guy was, and as far as he knew, he wasn't adopted. Why did he look like him? Why did he care?

Nori blinked and looked at him. “Who was that guy that looking like y-”

“If you figure that out, I'd love to hear it,” Tommy muttered. This whole thing was giving him a headache. “I'm gonna go, I'll see you guys later.” With that he left his bewildered friends behind and raced out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Rahne is the same age as she should be, this bit was canon in the comics and is now written out of this au because I don't like it.  
> \- David is an anxious nerd don't mind him.  
> \- Laurie did not want to go on the hay ride because she was afraid the fear would cause her powers to misbehave and she didn't want tot risk that.  
> \- Tommy was pretending that the thing he said was said by Quinton through him so that Quinton would be blamed appropriately.  
> \- I have always headcannoned the twins being born on Halloween or the Day of the Dead. There is a reason Halloween was chosen instead this time.  
> \- Dani is now his legal guardian, as she is of Josh and somewhat of Sofia.  
> \- Camera guy is fine, Camera is not.


	7. The Teasing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy plays chess with an old guy, plays songs randomly with Jay, has a flashback, questions his sexuality, and gets a whole bunch of clips put in his hair by Nori.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again for the delay but here is chapter seven! In the scene called Panic Tommy has a flashback brought on by claustrophobia and elevators, if this could trigger you, I caution you against reading it. I tried to get as accurate as I could, so I hope I did alright. Also, for the scene titled 'Bi Disaster' I would like to mention that I'm not a stranger to the LGBT+ community as I am myself a lesbian, so Tommy's words are not mine, just the effects of his upbringing.

#### Meeting Magneto

At this point, Tommy had been at the school for about three months, and he'd fallen into the routine. Monday, Wednesday, Friday was track in the morning, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday was training, and Sunday was counseling. That was why, on one cool November morning, he was absolutely thrown for a loop.

Mag-freaking-neto was sitting in the office, playing chess with Professor Xavier.

“Should I go…?” Tommy asked, pointing back out the door.

The professor looked up. “Oh I'm sorry, I must have lost track of time. Erik, this is a Thomas. Thomas, this is Erik Lehnsherr.”

“Hello, Thomas,” the man said, giving him a somewhat awkward looking smile.

“Tommy,”

“I'm sorry?”

“Call me Tommy. I go by Tommy.”

“Oh! Very well. It's nice to meet you, Tommy. Would you like to play chess?” Erik asked gesturing at the board.

“We can have our session afterwards if you want to, and end at the same time. I know you have plans this afternoon, I don't want to delay you,” Professor Xavier said.

“Yeah sure,” Tommy said, sitting down in his usual seat. “I have no idea how to play though.”

Erik explained the rules to him, showing him how each piece moved. Tommy could feel his eyes on him like he was watching him take this all in, but he had no idea why he was doing so. He brushed it off and picked the white pieces, beginning the game.

“So, Tommy, what is your favorite subject in school?” Erik asked as they played.

“Um, I don't know. Math and science are really hard, and I have a hard time understanding the symbolism stuff in lit. History is okay, there's just a lot of it,” Tommy said, thinking very carefully about his moves.

“Tommy is in track and plays piano also,” Professor Xavier added. “He has many extracurriculars, which he excels in. He's still catching up to what he missed before.”

Tommy shot the professor a look of ‘what the hell?’ before looking at the board again. He had no idea what was going on and he didn't like it. Was the professor trying to sell him or something?

_No no nothing like that,_ the professor said to him mentally. _Everything is fine, Tommy, don't worry._

“My son was in track, and my daughter played piano,” Erik said. “Do you race as well?”

“Yeah, I run. I do enough of the jumping stuff in training for X-Men stuff,” Tommy joked.

Erik nodded, moving his next piece. “I'm sure you do. You're doing very well for not knowing how to play.”

“Thanks,” he replied, looking over his pieces again and making his move. “It’s pretty easy.”

“That depends on who you are playing,” Erik said wisely.

“Are you going easy on me?” Tommy asked.

Erik gave him a look that was somewhere between proud and amused as he took Tommy’s king. “My boy, I never go easy on anyone.”

\---

#### Don’t Stop Me Now

“Are you ready?” Tommy asked Jay. They’d set up his electric guitar in the parlor as discreetly as possible next to the piano, and both were warmed up and ready to go. They had no idea if this was going to get them into trouble or not. There weren't any rules against rocking out in the parlor as far as they knew, but they could be wrong. They were willing to take the risk.

“Oh yeah,” Jay replied, “ready when you are.”

Tommy poised his fingers to begin, took a breath, and began to sing,  
“ _I feel alive and the world I'll turn it inside out, yeah_  
 _And floating around in ecstasy_  
 _So don't stop me now don't stop me_  
 _'Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time._ ”

Jay joined in as they got to the chorus, and began to play when the guitar came in. As soon as the guitar started along with the piano, heads started to peek into the room. The pair quickly gathered themselves a crowd as people came to see what they were up to. A few of their classmates sang along with them in the chorus, creating a great sound. If only they had a drummer.

“ _Don't stop me, don't stop me_  
 _Don't stop me, hey, hey, hey_  
 _Don't stop me, don't stop me_  
 _Ooh ooh ooh, I like it_  
 _Don't stop me, don't stop me_  
 _Have a good time, good time_  
 _Don't stop me, don't stop me, ah_  
 _Oh yeah_  
 _Alright._ ”

Scott and Emma stood at the doorway now, arms crossed. Scott seemed to be enjoying the music, and Emma appeared to appreciate their spirit, since they didn’t stop them as they concluded the song and started the next. They stuck to Queen because the audience seemed to be enjoying it, and they both knew the whole songs. After a few songs they stood and bowed to the crowd, who cheered for them before dispersing. 

“Are you guys going to be doing this again sometime?” a kid Tommy didn't know the name of asked.

“Yeah probably,” Jay replied cheerfully.

“Great! Looking forward to it,” they said before running off.

Tommy felt a metallic hand on his shoulder, giving him a little bit of an electric shock. “Next time you need a drummer, tell me. We can work out the specifics then,” Nori whispered.

“I didn't know you played,” Tommy admitted.

“We'd love to have you!” Jay said.

“Good. See you guys later,” she said as she left the scene. 

The teachers who had come to watch them gave them positive or neutral looks as they left as well. That went way better than they'd expected, and people seriously wanted them to do it again. They weren't exactly planning on making a band, but if it happened, it happened. Now Nori wanted to join them too! What was a rock band without a drum?

A moment passed as they made sure everyone was gone before Jay whooped and reached for a fist bump. “Good job, dude!”

“You too!” Tommy said, bumping his fist.

\---

#### Panic

The trio left Laurie and Sofia’s room with armfuls of picnic necessities. It was a nice afternoon and the group had decided to enjoy themselves by the lakeside. Tommy was helping Sofia and Laurie carry things down to the shore, while some of the others prepared food and the rest got them a spot and put the blanket down.

“Can we use the elevator? I can’t see where I’m going and I know I’ll fall down the stairs,” Laurie asked. They always used the stairs when Tommy was there, though that fact had never been discussed before and nobody had questioned it.

Tommy hesitated before nodding. “Yeah, duh. It makes more sense.”

They got on the elevator and Sofia pushed the button to take them down. As the doors closed, Tommy could feel his growing panic. He could hear that stupid music again, feel the guards holding onto him because he wouldn’t stop fighting against them, smell the disinfectant that the doctors always reeked of, see the fluorescent lights that stung his eyes. Distantly, he recognized the sound of things falling as he curled up in a ball. The walls of the elevator were closing in on him, he couldn’t breathe, he was small, too small for this.

There were hands on his face, and he panicked further struggling against the person. Some part of him knew this was messed up, but the elevator was so small and the music was so loud, he couldn’t think. His mind was a blur of panic and terrible memories, it was impossible to see anything. The hands were on him again, pulling him out of the elevator, causing him to panic more. Tommy didn’t want to be experimented on again, he didn’t want to be tortured again. They were dragging him to the testing room, he was going to die this time he was sure.

Arms wrapped around him instead of continuing to drag him. He fought against them a bit but the person held firm, firm but gentle. Slowly, Tommy started to become more aware again. There was a hand stroking his hair, and a voice whispering softly to him. It brought images of a woman with flowing auburn hair and a nice voice to the surface of his mind, but he pushed those away and focused on the feelings to ground him in the present.

He was on the ground outside the elevator. Laurie and Sofia were sitting against the wall cross from him, looking distraught. He had been crying. Storm was cradling him and stroking his hair, singing a song he didn’t understand. He was okay. He was at the school and with friends and not back there. He was safe.

\---

#### Bi Disaster

This school was a hormone driven drama fest. It did not take long for Tommy to understand that, and he spent a fair bit of time making fun of people who were involved for causing it. The whole thing between Kevin and Laurie and Josh was still happening, much to the group's chagrin, but it seemed to be at a bit of a lull as none of them were currently trying to date anyone.

Sofia had recently admitted to Tommy that she was in a relationship with Julian, and asked him not to tell anyone, meaning he told David because he tells David everything and David doesn't tell anyone anything. The relationship was filled with trouble since their squads didn't like each other, and had fought more than once. Tommy didn't want to tell her it wasn't a good idea, because it seemed like besides the whole friends situation that the relationship was good, but he did tell her to be careful. Julian was a hot head, and though he highly doubted he'd take an evil turn and treat her badly, Tommy worried that he might get upset and his powers would follow.

The biggest problem in Tommy's book though, was that David and Nori had started dating. It wasn't like he was jealous or anything, it was just that David was spending less time with him. They were a good match for each other, though Nori sometimes rubbed him the wrong way. He wanted them both to be happy, but he missed his best friend. Tommy didn't want to mention that to him though, afraid that it would be taken the wrong way. 

Something that didn't help anything was his conflicting feelings. He couldn't get that night at the concert out of his head. It wasn't like he was gay though! He'd had plenty of crushes on girls before. Tommy didn't want to not be straight. He was already a mutant, he was already an outsider, he didn't want yet another thing that people didn't like about him. Still though, he knew that if he wasn't, there was nothing he could do about it. It wasn't like this was the first time he'd felt this way either.

So, confused and unsure about the whole thing, he did the only reasonable thing he could think of: Ask Roxy.

It was after track practice and he pulled her aside before they went to the locker rooms. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

“Is it about how Mercury punched me after I asked her out and embarrassed me in front of the whole school?” Roxy asked, sounding really done with the whole thing.

“It's… related, yeah,” Tommy said doing his rhythmic tapping.

“Alright, go ahead. If it's a stupid question I'm leaving,” Roxy said, crossing her arms.

“How did you know?”

When he asked that, her demeanor changed, more open than closed. “How did I know I liked her?”

“How did you know you… weren't… straight…”

She took a deep breath. “Do you think you might not be straight?”

“I'm not gay!” he said quickly.

“Is there something wrong with being gay?” she asked, immediately making him feel bad.

“No! No there isn't, I just… my parents were really anti everything. I'm still kinda dealing with the fallout of that,” he said. “I know there's nothing wrong with being gay, but I'm not gay. I've liked girls before.”

“So do you think you might be bi?” Roxy asked.

He shifted his weight from one foot to another. “Is that liking both?”

“It's liking more than one. There's more than two,” Roxy said.

“Then… I don't know, maybe? I'm sorry I asked you, I know it's not your-”

“Tommy, we're teammates. There aren't a lot of not straight people on campus, we need to stick together. You don't have to know everything right now, you have plenty of time to figure it out,” she said. “Do you have a crush on someone? Is that what caused this?”

“... He's dating a girl now…”

“Oh that sucks. Do you want to come over to my room later for ice cream and sad movies? That was my plan, and if we're both going through that, might as well suffer together,” she said.

Tommy smiled a little. “That sounds fun. Thanks.”

They got together that night and sat on her bed, wrapped up in fluffy blankets and eating pints of ice cream while they watched sad Netflix movies. He felt normal again. His feelings were normal, heartbreak was heartbreak. It would take some time to really accept everything, but he was on the right track.

He wanted the best for David. David was his best friend, and if he liked Nori, Tommy wouldn't do anything to get in their way. He wanted them both to be happy and by god he refused to add to the drama of this school if he could help it. Drama was fun when it wasn't yours. Tommy just wanted a life.

\---

#### Fall Festival

At the Xavier School for Mutant Kids, the Fall Fest was a tradition that they always upheld. Instead of celebrating Thanksgiving in the traditional sense, they threw a festival to celebrate the harvest and being alive and together. There were booths and games across the grounds and the students and faculty were enjoying the last warm day of the year. 

“Let's play the water shooting game!” Sofia said, pulling Laurie and Josh over with her.

There were five shooters per game, so they split up the group into one group of four and one group of three. Whomever did best in both rounds would go against each other for the title of Water Gun Champion. The competition was tight, and they all agreed that powers were not allowed, since only Sofia's would be particularly useful in this endeavor.

In the first round, Sofia, Nori, Jay, and Josh sat down and prepared to go. They did as well as they could on a game like that, and Jay and Sofia came out on top. Second round, David, Tommy, and Laurie went. Somehow, David managed to keep losing control of the shooter, allowing Tommy and Laurie to win.

In the final round, tensions were high. This could surely make or break their friendships. Laurie, never one to be competitive, allowed her shooter to drop so that she wasn't apart of the problem. Sofia saw that and used her power to blow the water back toward the target, disqualifying her from the competition. Tommy and Jay were both distracted by the whole thing, and in the end, Laurie's bell rang first, crowning her the champion. They cheered and she was given all of the stuffed animals won for the tournament, which caused her to blush and grow flustered. 

The crew moved on to other activities, ending up playing most of the games with various success rates. Tommy managed to win the ring toss tournament and ended up carrying around five stuffed animals of various sizes as his reward. They got cotton candy and sat down at a table to enjoy it.

“Hey, Tommy,” Nori said. She and David were sitting together on one side of the four sided table.

“Yeah?” Tommy asked. He and Josh were sitting together, and he was very distracted by how sticky his hands were getting.

“I won this pack of hair clips, do you want some. Your hair is getting longer,” she asked.

Tommy laughed. It was true that his hair was growing back faster than they'd expected, but they assumed it was an effect of his power. Currently, it was at an odd length that was hard to control. “It's too short for them to be useful.”

Nori stood and started sticking the clips in his hair, probably about twenty of them. He was correct that they weren't helping any, but he was amused by what was happening. “See? Helpful.”

“Very, thank you,” Tommy replied, trying to keep a straight face.

“They're all fall themed, they don't match my style. You can keep them,” Nori said.

“And they match my style?!”

“Well, your birthday is on Halloween.”

Tommy laughed. “Great. Thanks. You're right. I totally forgot that meant my whole aesthetic had to match my birthday.”

Nori sat back down and smirked at him. “I'm happy to remind you.”

After washing their hands, they continued exploring the festival. They went on the few rides set up, simple but fun. When they found the Ferris wheel, they paired off to ride. David and Nori went on together first, and kissed at the top, which received various sounds from the group ranging from grossed out to 'awwww'. Next Laurie and Josh went up together. They didn't kiss, but they did sit very close. Jay went up with his old teammate Sooraya, and Tommy had a feeling that was a running thing happening between them.

Tommy and Sofia went up together about the time David and Nori got off. They swung their thing together, laughing as they did, mostly because the others looked terrified that they were going to die. It was fun! The sun was setting, they'd had a good day. Unlike the others, there was no deeper relationship between then than friends, so they just enjoyed goofing around and being together. 

The night ended with fireworks. Tommy gently pushed Sofia away, towards Julian who was standing nervously nearby. He gave her a wink as she looked at the others, causing her to smile and go over to Julian. Happy to help her get the boy, he teased Jay about going on the Ferris wheel with his old teammate to distract the group from the fact that Sofia was currently probably snogging his old team's leader somewhere.

“Shut up, okay? She's just my friend! She's cool!” Jay complained.

“She's my roommate!” Nori cried. “She's not cool. We barely get along. You should crush on someone else.”

“Sooraya is cool! And nice! And kind! And I don't have a crush on her I just admire how strong and amazing she is!” Jay said, making everyone laugh again. “Shut up!”

“Dude, if you like her, go for it. Your right, she's all that stuff,” Tommy said, putting an arm around his shoulder. “Just warn me ahead of time if you're gonna be in the room together. I don't wanna walk in on you two being all cute and gross and romantic and stuff, bleh.”

“Shut up! She's- no! I'm going to bed, goodnight!” Jay tossed Tommy's discarded hoodie over his head and pretended to snore.

Tommy snatched it back and put it on. “You aren't actually a bird, stop that.”

Jay laughed. “We really should head to bed though, everyone is packing up.”

“Yeaaah, see you guys tomorrow,” David said, giving Nori another kiss before heading out with Josh.

The rest of the group went back to their rooms after that, having had a good day and having all earned at least five stuffed animals. It went well, Tommy thought, though all the PDA had made him sad. They deserved it though, so Tommy tried his best to get over it. It was a good day, no need to spoil it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- There is a very good reason that the first scene happened and that is "Hey, Erik, I think this kid might be your grandson he's weird like you" "... I guess I'll come hang out for a bit and see."  
> \- Erik is impressed by Tommy's chess skills because he is surprised by how quickly he picked it up.  
> \- Queen... Just... Queen... It will keep showing up.  
> \- Tommy's experiences with his sexuality are ones I've seen before and some I have experienced myself. We all need a Roxy when we are coming into our own.  
> \- The event Roxy mentions is something that happened in the comics.  
> \- David and Nori got together off screen. You did not miss anything.  
> \- The Fall Festival just made me laugh so much as I was writing it, I hope you enjoy it too!


	8. The Holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy and David avoid drama by talking like normal people, Tommy mocks Josh's fort making abilities, gets invited to celebrate Hanukkah with the Jewish member of the school, gets discovered to be the true nerd that he is, and blows a horn in David's face to annoy him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's so weird to be posting a December chapter in June but here we are! No trigger warnings this chapter, it is all really soft and nice. The Hanukkah scene is written with a great deal of care and was proofread by a Jewish friend of mine for the most accuracy possible. The next chapter and arc takes a bit of a nosedive into angst and drama, so enjoy this fluff while it's here. There are, of course, fun scenes in between the serious, but with five scenes a chapter it can get a little tight.

#### Gift Shopping

“LET'S HEAR THOSE SLEIGH BELLS RINGING AND A RING TING TINGLING TOOOO. COME ON IT'S LOVELY WEATHER FOR A CAR RIDE TOGETHER WITH YOU!” the squad shout sang together as Dani drove them to the mall. 

“I don’t think those are the right words!” Dani said loudly.

“GIDDY UP GIDDY UP GIDDY UP LET’S GO! JUST LOOK AT THE SNOW! WE’RE RIDING IN A WONDERLAND OF… SNOW... “

Dani just shook her head and laughed at their antics. She didn’t even have music on. They were just singing on their own, very loudly, and not the correct lyrics. This wasn’t even their first song! There’s always a pause between the songs until someone starts singing a new one. It wasn’t too distracting, because she used to this sort of thing from them. As long as they were entertaining themselves and not fighting, she was fine with it.

When they got to the mall, it was pretty quiet, thankfully, which was exactly why she’d brought them there right after class on a weekday for this activity. They had never caused any problems on trips before, but she didn’t want to risk other people starting things as much as she could help it. Her squad was made up of good kids who generally didn’t pick fights with people over little things, and she wanted to keep them out of danger as much as possible. She parked at the food court and set them loose so that they could buy gifts for each other. Dani made sure they had her on speed dial in case something happened, and went off to do her own shopping.

They’d all gotten allowance from Dani for them to get one thing for each other and for her if they so chose. The group split up with Josh, Laurie, and Sofia going off together, and Tommy, Jay, David, and Nori going off in the other direction. Dani had insisted that the smallest they could split up was into pairs, which the second group ended up doing often so they could look for things for each other easier.

“Do you think David will like this?” Jay asked, holding up his intended gift: a copy of Zelda something or other.

“Yeah, he likes that Link guy,” Tommy replied.

“Sweet. What are you getting him?”

“We need to go to the bookstore for that. I wanna give him that one book about robots,”

“Very specific,” Jay joked, buying the game and setting aside the extra cash for his gift for Dani.

“I know right? I know him so well,” he joked back as they headed over to the bookstore.

“Are you guys okay by the way? You two have been really awkward around each other and you’ve been hanging out with me way more than you used to,” Jay said, bumping him gently as they walked.

Tommy sighed. “I don’t know. He’s been weird for a while, and then he started dating Nori and it got even worse… I don’t know what to do. He’s my best friend but it’s like I did something wrong and he won’t tell me what! If he would just tell me, I could fix it and we could go back to the way things were.”

“Have you tried talking to him about it?”

“Every time I ask, he tells me that it isn’t my fault and that I didn’t do anything wrong, but it doesn’t feel like that,” Tommy said, scratching his head.

“You know how he gets in his head. It’s probably just that. If you tell him that you miss spending time with him and you’re sorry for whatever you did, and that you want to go back to how it was before, I’m sure he’ll come around. He’s probably just wrapping himself up further and further into whatever is upsetting him. He probably doesn’t realize he’s hurting you by doing that, he’s just being David,” Jay suggested.

“Yeah, you’re right. I know. It’s just so awkward, I don’t want to bother him,” Tommy sighed.

“He’s your best friend, and you’re his! I know! He’s told me! He came up to me a few days ago to ask if you were okay!”

“Why did he ask you?!”

“I don’t know! It’s David!”

Tommy sighed again and looked over the selection of books. He ended up grabbing a whole book series and taking it to the register. This was one he knew David loved, but hadn’t brought with him to school and missed reading.

“Dude, I’m pretty sure there are no robots in The Lord of the Rings,” Jay teased.

“Have you read it?”

“No? But-”

“Then you don’t know,” Tommy said, buying the books and shoving them in his backpack. “They’re his favorite, and he doesn’t have them at school. He’ll appreciate this more than the Robot Sheep book.”

“Makes sense. Nori next?” Jay suggested.

“Meaning: time to find Hot Topic,” he joked, causing Jay to laugh.

They did in fact head to Hot Topic and find things there that they knew she’d love, then continued on for the others. Eventually, they switched up who was with who so that they could buy for each other, and David ended up with Tommy. It was as awkward as they’d expected, but they didn’t try to find the others to switch, because that would be accepting defeat.

“Look, David, I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did to upset you like this, but I’m sorry. I miss hanging out with you. You spend all your time with Nori now and Jay isn’t nearly as good of a study partner as you are,” Tommy said.

“I know you’re jealous. I can see it,” David mumbled.

“What?!” Tommy cried. “No! I’m not jealous! Why would I be jealous?!”

“You like Nori!” David said. “You both move quickly and get along like fire and gasoline.”

“No, I- no. I like Nori, but she’s my friend! We hang out because we can think about as quickly as each other, but fire and gasoline will just make a big mess. You think like us too, ‘cause you’re so smart. That’s why we- that’s why we both gravitate towards you. I would never do anything to get in between you two. You’re my best friend, David. If you want to date Nori, I wouldn’t do anything to stop you! You seem like a good couple! If I’m jealous of anything, it’s that she’s taking up all your time and I miss hanging out with you,” Tommy admitted.

David was quiet for a second before sighing. “I’m sorry I’ve been acting like an ass. It wasn’t right. You didn’t do anything, it’s all been me messing up. We can hang out again. I’m sorry we stopped. You’re my best friend too, I don’t want anything to come in between us either.”

“It’s fine, I just want my best friend back,” Tommy said, actually holding his arms out for a hug, which shocked David. Tommy never instigated that sort of thing, though he rarely denied it when it was offered. So, David hugged him tightly in the middle of the mall, and Tommy hugged back just as tightly, relieved that they’d worked through the issue without causing a big scene at school like everybody else always did.

\---

#### Snow Day!

The first snow of the year came a bit later than usual, but when it did come, it blanketed the area in a foot of snow. None of the students were paying attention in class, too preoccupied watching the windows, so the teachers dismissed them early. It seemed better to them that the students played in it during the warmer hours of the day than later when everything would turn to ice. Tommy and his friends went out as quickly as they could, going to their usual hang out spot where the snow was fresh and untouched by the other students.

“I’ve never done this before,” Sofia admitted as they trudged through the snow. “It doesn’t snow much in Venezuela.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll show you what stuff to do!” Laurie said, bumping her as they walked.

Out of nowhere, a snowball pelted the back of Josh’s head. He whipped around. “TOMMY! Oh it’s on!”

Tommy cackled as Josh started making a snowball of his own. “Wait wait, someone show Sofia how to make a snowball before we start this!”

David quickly showed her the proper technique as everyone started making piles of snowballs and packing snow into fortifications around themselves. As he concluded and she got the hang of it. A snowball hit him square on the face. “Hey! No head shots!” David cried as Tommy cackled again. He and Sofia seemed to be a team this time, which made sense as she had no idea what she was doing.

A snowball hit Tommy from the side, going down his jacket and making his sweater wet. When he looked and saw it was Laurie who threw it, he made an offended expression before throwing one back at her, officially starting the fight. Snowballs were flying in all directions. Jay’s wings were shielding him from the snow, only moving away long enough for him to throw another one. Josh’s fort started to crumble from the quick formation and the assault coming from Laurie and Nori.

“Nooo! Pause pause pause let me rebuild!” he cried, trying to rebuild his fort.

“NO MERCY!” Tommy shouted, hitting him in the face with another ball.

“Tommy!” David said. “No head shots!”

“You’re no fun!”

“You could have broken my glasses!”

“You don’t even need those anymore!”

David threw a snowball and it hit Tommy right on the face. “How do you like that?!”

“Great thanks I enjoyed it immensely,” Tommy joked as he wiped the snow off of his face. “Hey, let’s build snowmen! I’ll go find stuff for them!” With that, he ran off to find parts for the snowmen and the battle was abandoned.

They made snowmen of various sizes, and one giant one they worked on together. The large amount of snow around them to work with was helpful in their efforts. When they were done, the giant one stood in front of seven smaller ones like it was their king, and each was decorated differently, reflecting the personality of the decorator as much as poorly made snowmen can. They stood back to admire their work.

“Sofia, good job on your first snowman!” Jay complimented.

“Thank you. Yours is very round!”

“Thanks!” he replied. His only had two balls of snow, a large middle and a head.

“Tommy, how did you manage to give yours an expression like that?” Josh asked.

Tommy’s had little sticks giving it eyebrows that made it look evil. “Sticks.”

“But why?”

“Because, sticks. Yours is a lot better than your fort.”

Josh laughed and pushed Tommy over into the snow. Tommy laughed and threw some snow back at him before beginning to make a snow angel. Soon the others joined him, giving the snowmen angel guardians. Before much longer, they were heading inside, shivering from how wet and cold they were. After changing their clothes into things that were warm and fuzzy, they got cups of cocoa that the teachers had made and cuddled up in their usual lounge, watching festive movies and the snow continuing to fall outside their window.

\---

#### Happy Hanukkah

Tommy had never really been a holidays guy. His family wasn't particularly religious and they didn't celebrate anything, so he always kind of hated that time of the year. It was annoying when everyone talked about the gifts they got and the memories they shared with their families that Tommy couldn't relate to. Plus, break meant he was stuck at home and it was usually too cold and icy to skip out and entertain himself. Instead he was stuck in his room with his old jukebox and hand-me-down CDs and the books he'd gotten from yard sales.

Out of habit, he was sitting alone in his room, reading a book for class as music played from their speaker in the corner. If he could wait out the holidays, it would be for the best. When he heard a knock at the door, he knew that hope was out the window, though he wasn't expecting who he found on the other side.

“Mr. Magneto? I mean- Uh, Erik?” Tommy said in greeting.

The man smiled at the slip up. “Hello, Tommy. I was wondering if you would like to join us. We will be lighting the menorahs soon, and afterwards there will be games and food and prayers. You don't have to understand everything, and we can answer any questions you have. I ask because Ms. Pryde said that you said that you never celebrated anything growing up, and I wanted to give you a chance to try this celebration.”

Tommy stared at him for a moment before shaking his head to clear it. “Uh, yeah sure. Let me… change my clothes?” Tommy said, closing the door again.

When Magneto asked if you wanted to party, he thought the best thing to do was probably to party. He changed quickly and turned off the music as he left the room. Erik led him down the hall to a different part of the mansion where Kitty and a few other students were. They were playing a game with that top and there were chocolate coins and oh man did Tommy want in on that.

“I'm glad you came, Tommy, we're going to be lighting the menorahs in about ten minutes. We'll teach you how to play dreidel that's over. Would you like some gelt?” Kitty said, holding out some of her chocolate coins to him.

“Thanks,” he said as he sat down with the others and unwrapped one of them. “I'm both happy and confused about being here.”

She laughed and continued playing the game. When the time came to light the candles, the group stood up and placed the candles in the holders. It was quieter now, and Tommy felt a little nervous because he didn't know what to do. They'd told him he didn't have to do anything, just watch, which relieved him, but he was a bit sad he was the only one not taking part.

"ברוך אתה יי, אלוהינו מלך העולם, אשר קידשנו במצוותיו, וציוונו להדליק נר של חנוכה"

"ברוך אתה יי, אלוהינו מלך העולם, שעשה נסים לאבותינו, בימים ההם בזמן הזה"

Tommy didn't understand what they were saying, but it seemed like they were singing or praying. Maybe both? It was very pretty though, and he thought it was neat.

After the blessings, Kitty and Erik both lit one of the candles on their own menorah, then used that one to light the others. The light was beautiful, the whole thing was just so interesting, he had little idea what was happening, but it fascinated and amazed him nevertheless. They took turns saying other things he didn't understand after the lighting, and then together they all sang a song.

When that was all over, Erik left to get something from the kitchen, and the others started explaining the game to him. It wasn't hard to understand, but because he didn't read Hebrew, he had a hard time remembering which side meant what. To help with that, the others would tell him what it meant and he would do it.

Erik soon returned with a covered dish that he sat down on a table nearby. He lifted the lid to display the potato latkes inside. Everyone scrambled over to get one, including Tommy who was eager to try something new. As they ate, Erik talked about the holiday and how it came to be, teaching and entertaining them. The others talked with him about it, and some asked questions, which he seemed happy about. Tommy just watched and listened, taking it all in and learning as they went. When that was finished, they sang some songs, which Tommy enjoyed but didn't understand, and some gave gifts to each other.

As Tommy stood there, watching the festivities, he felt Erik gently tap him on the shoulder. “Would you please come with me?”

Tommy, terribly confused, nodded and followed him down the hall. “What's up?”

Erik held up a finger and went into the room he stayed in, returning with a pile of wrapped presents. “I have gifts for you.”

“Why?” Tommy asked.

The man thought about the question for a moment before saying, “You don't have family memories, and you went through hell that I have spent the majority of my life trying to prevent. This is the least I can do.’

That was still weird to Tommy, but he shrugged it off because he couldn't think of another reason. “Do I open them now or…?”

“You might as well,” Erik said, handing him the gifts. 

There were eight in total, which made sense given the holiday. The first one had three cds, one of Green Day, one of Queen, and one of Jim Croce, which was not a name he recognized. Next, there was a book of rock music for piano. There was also the track jacket he'd been wanting to match the rest of the team, but hadn't had the chance to ask for yet. Additionally, there was a vanilla almond scented candle that reminded him of home somehow. In similar fashion the next package had a scarlet red sheer scarf that had the smell of a perfume that brought back those images of the auburn haired woman. Lastly, there was a nice, warm, green sweater that Tommy could tell would be very comfortable.

Tommy assumed that the Professor had helped him figure out what to get him, because there was no way he could have guessed all that. “Thanks, really… Thank you.” He wrapped the scarf around his neck and covered the bottom half of his face with it, which Erik seemed to take note of.

“You're welcome. I hope you enjoyed this. I'm sorry I couldn't be there more,” Erik said.

He shrugged. “You got here today, it's no big deal,” Tommy said, keeping the scarf over his face carefully. Erik didn't seem to agree though. He helped Tommy take his things to his room, and bid him goodnight as Tommy closed the door. 

Tommy lit the candle and put on the CD of the guy he didn't know, changed into the sweater and cuddled up with the scarf. Hearing the music and feeling and smelling everything that he was was like getting sucker punched by a wave of nostalgia he didn't understand. Everything that was happening reminded him of home in some distant part of his mind but none of it was like his actual home. It had been a lovely evening though, and he felt very safe and warm and loved through the nostalgia, which pulled him into a gentle sleep.

\---

#### The Gift of Giving

Because not everyone in the group celebrated anything in particular that took place in December, they had decided on a gift exchange that was unconnected to a holiday. They gathered in their usual lounge with gifts wrapped. There was cocoa and cookies and they'd decorated the room as pretty and non religiously as possible.

Tommy was pretty proud of his choices, not so proud of his messy wrapping. Still, they were all covered up, whether it was good or not. Wintery music was playing from the speaker and everyone was in good spirits. The only thing that was not fun was the fact that they kept telling him not to eat all the cookies.

When it came time to exchange the gifts, they each ended up with a pile of seven presents, one from each of the people in the circle. They would unwrap one at a time so everyone got to see what they got, and their reactions to it. Tommy was excited, more to see their reactions to his gifts than to receive, which was an interesting development. 

“Josh, really?” Tommy said with a laughed, holding up the gift he'd gotten from him, which was two packs of socks. One pack was nice and normal while the other was fuzzy and comfortable, but at the same time, socks.

“You talk about how you get holes in your socks all the time because of your running! I thought it would help,” Josh explained. “Thanks for the game by the way.” Tommy had given him a game Josh had mentioned he'd played with his old friends and missed, so that they could play it together and he would have better memories with it.

Jay received a gift card to iTunes and a box of fancy looking picks. “Oh man, thanks! These are cool!”

Tommy just gave him a thumbs up as he looked through the book of music that Jay had gotten him. He was excited to try it out later, after everything was over and he could run away to the piano. Finally he sat it down and opened the next gift, which turned out to be a large stuffed animal. “Thanks?”

“You mentioned a while back how you hadn't really had a lot of stuffed animals growing up, so I thought I'd get you a nice one that you could hug when you get upset. This is so cute by the way! Thank you!” Laurie cried, spinning the snow globe Tommy got her with a silver base and cute little people making a big snowman.

He smiled when he saw how happy it made her before opening his next gift. This one was from Sofia, and contained a beanie with music notes on it, a matching scarf, and some pins that matched the theme. “Oh that's so funny. Thanks, but open mine right now.”

She did as he said, and laughed as she pulled out the cute hat and matching scarf he'd gotten her. “Great minds think alike!” Sofia said as she put them on.

“I know right?” Tommy said. He turned to watch Nori open his gift to her, which were drumsticks with a pattern etched in them he'd found at the music store and a beanie with a lightning bolt on it.

“These are epic, thanks. Tommy, open mine next,” she said, spinning the sticks in her hands.

He did as she said, and found a beanie that said ‘RUN.’ on it, and a few different hair dyes. “Oh cool! Are we going to do that hair dye thing we talked about?”

“If you're up for it, yeah. Your hair will be super vibrant since it doesn't need bleached,” Nori said.

Dani said, “Please be careful not to make a mess in the bathroom.”

“I'm an expert at hair dying, it'll be fine,” Nori replied.

He opened Dani's present next, since she spoke up, and was amazed to see the box full of different fidget toys. There were squishy balls and tangles and an infinity cube. “Thank you, Dani! See what I got you.”

She opened her present and smiled as she took the cap off to smell the maple caramel candle. “This is wonderful, thanks, Tommy.”

“Tommy, oh my god,” David said, hugging the books to his chest. “Thank you so much. I can't believe- open mine.”

He did as he was told, and covered his eyes and laughed when he saw what was inside. David had gotten him the exact same set of books. When he was younger, and stuck being cooped up in his room when it was too cold out to run wild, he'd been stuck reading the books he'd gotten. At one point, one of his neighbors had just given him their old beat up copies of the Lord of the Rings series, which Tommy had read over a few times to occupy his time. The fact that they had both read the books and enjoyed them had been a bonding point for them towards the beginning of their friendship, so the fact that they gave each other the series for Christmas confirmed to Tommy that they were still as close as they use to be. 

“I can't believe we got each other the same exact box set,” Tommy said with a laugh.

“Wait wait wait,” Jay said as he noticed what was happening. “You're just as big of a nerd as he is?!”

“I'm not a nerd!”

“You are overjoyed that David got you one of the nerdiest book series in existence, you are so a nerd!”

“Just because you enjoy a good book series doesn't make you a nerd!”

“You're a little bit of a nerd, Tommy,” David agreed, just getting more protests from Tommy.

“I think it's time for the surprise,” Sofia said over the bickering.

The boys stopped when she spoke, and Tommy quickly went back up to his room and returned with the surprise. Each of the kids had saved up the leftover money for each other's gifts, and put it together to get a surprise group gift for Dani. When Tommy put the large rectangle down in front of her, she looked absolutely shocked.

“It's from all of us to you!” Tommy explained, sitting back down.

“Oh you didn't have to do this, you could have kept the money for yourselves,” she said, looking like she was tearing up already.

David shook his head. “We wanted to buy this for you.”

She ripped open the package to find a large copy of the group picture they took at the farm back in October, with a note stuck in the corner of it that said ‘Thanks for everything, Mom! Signed Josh, Jay, Nori, Laurie, Tommy, Sofia, David.’ In the picture, they're all dressed warmly, with their cups of cider in their hands as they sat at the table together, a nice stranger having taken the picture for them. Seeing how much work went into this, she was soon wiping away tears of joy.

Four of the seven members of the group didn't have a parental figure besides Dani, and with how much work and dedication she put into taking care of them, they'd all started to see her as a mother figure. She took care of them, helped them however she could. She was their mentor and guardian and advisor, but she had often gone above and beyond for them. In turn, they went above and beyond for her.

“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much. You really are the best kids I could have asked for.” Dani opened her arms for a group hug, which they all joined in.

“Thank you, Dani, for everything,” Josh said. The rest of the group agreed, causing fresh tears to flow.

“Happy holidays, everyone,” she replied, squeezing them a little tighter.

\---

#### New Year New Me?

Alcohol wasn't allowed on campus (unless you were a teacher) but the teachers did buy many bottles of sparkling cider for the student body to drink when the clock struck midnight. The whole building was involved of the party, with snacks and punch and music as they prepared to bring in the new year. There were decorations everywhere, proud and bright and bringing joy to everyone.

“Please stop blowing that thing,” David said as Tommy gave another blow of the horn in his ear. “If you don't stop, I'm going to take it from you and you'll never see it again.”

“I'd like to see you try, David,” Tommy teased, zipping around him and blowing the horn.

David just sighed and seemed to accept his fate. “Have you seen Nori? It's almost midnight.”

“No I haven't, I've been too busy annoying you,” Tommy said, resting an elbow on David's shoulder even though David was taller.

“I'll find her eventually,” David said, again seeming to accept his fate.

“Are you sure you don't want me to go find her?” Tommy asked. “She might get upset if you don't kiss at midnight.”

David waved it off. “It'll be fine. We kiss plenty enough as it is.”

“If you say so, man,” Tommy said, sticking the horn in his mouth again.

Soon the countdown began, with just about everyone in the school joining in, making it quite loud. When it struck midnight, everyone cheered and there was kissing all over the place. Not for Tommy though, he just sang the New Year's Song loudly and wrapped an arm around David's shoulder, getting him to join in. It was loud, it was wild, but it was, Tommy thought, a sign that this year would be better than the last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- He was referencing the book "Do Androids Dream of Robotic Sheep" and the game "Zelda Breath of the Wild", but in true Tommy fashion he adamantly refuses to use the correct names for anything.  
> \- If you think Nori doesn't shop almost exclusively at Hot Topic and Spencers you are wrong.  
> \- Josh healed David's vision so his glasses aren't necessary anymore.  
> \- I am displeased that I couldn't make the Hebrew go on the correct side of the page but oh well.  
> \- Erik is not being a creeper intentionally, he's trying his best and nobody has explained shit to Tommy so he has no idea what's going on.  
> \- He got Josh Cards Against Humanity.  
> \- Lord of the Rings is excluded from Tommy's refusal to call things by the correct name because it's his favorite. Why? Because I decided so.  
> \- I'd love it if somebody drew the picture they got Dani.  
> \- Tommy is incorrect in his hope. This is chapter eight, Tommy, we've got a ways to go before your happy ending.


	9. Different Drama

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy blows up, succeeds in a Slight of Hand check, gets some rough news, talks shit with Laura, and gets shot at.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again for the absence! Things are just busy all the time always. This chapter is kind of the start of the next arc, so that's exciting, and it'll last us through the end of the school year. It'll be pretty easy to recognize what I'm talking about after the first scene. Also! In Game Night, they are playing DnD because I am a huge nerd. I do suggest reading the scenes in this chapter carefully, there are some things that will come up later.

#### Something Wicked This Way Comes

They were not even a week into the new year and already things were stressful. It wasn't the return to classes, or any new Romantic Drama. No, this tension was caused by the news. A villain blew up, hurting tons of people and killing many more, a fair bit of them children. Now there were talks of a list of all the powered people in the country.

The school was in a state of distress because of it. Most of the students worried that it would lead them to be attacked or disowned if their name was on a public list like that. There were some that thought it was a good idea, but they were a minority, while everyone else was panicked. Classes were continuing as usual despite the fact that none of the students could focus. The teachers wanted to keep things as normal as possible for them, though they didn't have any graded assignments during that time.

Tommy was in class with Mr. Summers when Kitty ran in and turned on the television before running to the next room. The news was telling of a fight between Captain America and some of his friends, and Iron man and his friends. It had been another week since the explosion had occurred, and now it seemed that conflict was inevitable.

“Class, please quiet down. Everything is going to be fine,” Scott said, trying to quell everyone's panic before it got to be too much.

Everyone quieted down, but the tension didn't lessen. A kid Tommy knew to be empathic began to cry, and his friend started to comfort him. Tommy was terrified. He didn't want to fight in a war. He didn't want there to BE a war. Hadn't they all gone through enough already?

“Tommy, are you alright?” Scott asked.

Tommy was shaking and panicking. There was a rising tension in him as he thought about how panicked he was. Then it was like a switch flipped, and everything slowed down as his desk began to explode. He quickly dragged everyone out of the room before they could get hurt in the explosion, seeing a red blur out of the corner of his eye. When he sped time back up, Tommy looked at Scott with wide eyes.

“I have no idea what just happened,” he admitted.

“I think you made a desk explode,” Scott replied sarcastically. “You aren't in trouble. Did you know you could do that?”

“No!”

“Well now you do. Be careful with that, and go talk to the Professor about it,” the man ordered.

Tommy nodded and headed to the Professor's office. He tried to think back on how he did it, but only remembered his hands shaking. His hands had shaken plenty of times before that, he had no idea what he did differently that time. The door opened to him as he got to it, bidding him to enter.

“So, you accidentally figured out how to speed other objects up?” the Professor asked.

“Is that what happened?”

“I believe you sped up the atoms of the desk in your panic about the oncoming turbulence. I think it would be a very useful skill in the days to come. We can work on it in training, so that hopefully no more desks need to face the same fate,” he explained.

Tommy nodded. That made sense. “I'll try my best, Professor.”

“I'm glad. Scott was about to dismiss the class anyway, so you may go about your day now.”

“Okay thanks bye!” Tommy said quickly as he ran out the door. He needed to find the others and tell them what happened. If there was a war coming, they had to be prepared, and honestly who deserved to know that he could blow things up more than his teammates?

\---

#### Game Night

“Is everyone ready?” David asked, peeking over his screen at the other six.

“Question,” Josh said. “Does my inspiration carry over to this week? I didn't get a chance to it last time and if someone gets hurt today I want to add it onto my healing spell.”

“Yeah sure. Anyone else?” David asked. There was no response so he continued. “Alright, who wants to give the summary of last week's session?”

Tommy raised his hand quickly. “We entered the cave and realized we were in the Underdark and ran into a Drow settlement but they didn't attack us because Josh's character is a Drow, so instead we hung out there for a while before we moved on and ended for the night. Oh! Laurie's character got drunk and we had to babysit her while she cried.”

“Matilda isn't used to drinking and has a lot going on,” Laurie said.

“And I had to miss out on a bar fight to babysit you,” Nori teased. “I'm a barbarian, fighting is my thing!”

“My character stole fifty gold in all from the people in the town because I'm a rogue and that's what I do,” Tommy added.

“Don't forget, fifteen of those are mine and you owe me,” Sofia said.

Tommy raised his hands innocently. “You haven't noticed I took them yet, so nope! I'll buy Brie something fun when we get to the surface.”

“If we live that long! I'm pretty sure David is trying to kill us,” Jay said. “I nearly died last session because I got a nat one on performance and everyone threw things at me so hard I took damage. I'm the bard!”

“Your song choice also sucked, and you didn't bring your actual guitar so you didn't have advantage like usual,” David said with a shrug.

“I'm just glad Bor was there and healed me,” Jay said, saluting at Josh, who copied the gesture.

David ushered them to quiet down and began the session. He was a good Dungeon Master, able to weave together plots and conflicts masterfully with his big brain. He'd pulled the group in to play Dungeons and Dragons with him a while back, and they enjoyed playing as a team fighting monsters and saving people like they wanted to do in real life.

“Tommy, stop stealing!” Sofia cried, causing Tommy to cackle.

“I am but a simple goblin rogue, you cannot blame me for my actions!” he said in his character's voice. 

“I'm down to two gold!” she said in return.

“Oh shit! I tap on her arm and say, ‘I think you dropped these’ and hand back what I just stole,” Tommy said as he mimed handing her gold.

Sofia laughed a bit and mimed taking the money back. “I take it from him and say, ‘Thank you. I know you stole-”

“Nope, roll me an insight check,” David cut in.

She swore as she rolled her die, and face palmed. “Nat one.”

“You cannot imagine a more trustworthy person than Gleb. He is the most trustworthy creature you've ever met,” David said with a laugh. Everyone laughed as he said that, knowing that Tommy's character often stole from them to buy little trinkets which he often gave to them as gifts. He was not trustworthy in the least, especially not when it came to money.

“Alright instead I say, ‘Thank you, dear Goblin Friend. What would I have ever done without your aid?’”

“I stand on my toes and reach up and give her hand a kiss, and wink at her before just shooting finger trebuchets at her and walking away.”

Everyone laughed at that again, and the session continued on. When it came to a close a while later, they packed up as David gave the departing monologue he usually did to set up the scene for next time. It left the group excited for the following Sunday night, and kept the game in mind for them over the week. It was a fun team building exercise they had, one that they enjoyed more than most of the things the teachers made them do.

\---

#### X-Men Response

Fighting between super humans hadn't lessened any, and everyone knew that the X-Men would have to make a statement on where they stood. If they approved of the registration, it would go against things they had fought for in the past, and potentially jeopardize their students. If they didn't, they would have the government against them again, and potentially jeopardize their students. It was a difficult decision without a third option, and neither option would be without definite risks.

When faced with such a hard choice, it was understandable that it could take a while for minds to be made. The students were nervous the entire time, knowing that they were going to get wrapped up in the conflict whether they wanted to be or not. They knew that the government was breathing down their teachers necks to try to get them to answer the question sooner than later, but it seemed like they were purposefully waiting, likely as a ‘screw you’ to those that were pressing them. 

The students had as a whole began to train harder. They knew that no matter what, risks were on the way and they needed to prepare. There was no good solution to this mess, no clear cut answer. Mutants were in a bad state again as they often were when things like this occurred. People always blamed them. People always targeted them. What could they do but prepare?

On a cold January morning, the school's public statement was released, their side chosen:

The X-Men would not be taking part in the registration.

\---

#### Run Boy Run

Despite the war, school activities continued as normal. It would be disastrous to ruin the routine for the students if they canceled all clubs and activities because of such terrifying reasons. The teachers wanted the students to feel as safe and protected as they could allow, like things were normal despite the situation.

Nothing major had come from the announcement yet, no one had come to attack them or anything, though that was no doubt on the way. It was easy enough to ignore the danger looming over them and focus on the day to day, which was why Tommy was so happy when track started back up again after the holidays. The school didn't end practice when the season wasn't in session, Wolverine had them working all year long, though Tommy felt like that was less to do with winning and more to do with structure.

Laura was running with him, working on the track aspect of her event. “Did you hear that Kevin caught Josh with Rahn this weekend?”

“I knew Laurie was upset about something, but neither of them would talk about it. We told him not to go out with her!” Tommy exclaimed.

“Yeah. Rahn got kicked out because Kevin told everyone,” Laura said.

“I spend the weekend studying for my test today, I wasn't paying attention to the drama at all. Did you hear the rumor that Jean Gray is coming back again?” he asked.

“God, I hope not. How many times will that be? Five? Six?”

“I have NO idea, but way too many times for sure.”

The two of them often swapped stories and rumors spread around campus, mostly to mock the drama but also to keep up to date. Without a doubt, the drama would cause everyone problems eventually, it was best to be prepared, even if that preparation was just witty remarks about how stupid the whole situation was. They both also related on sometimes finding it difficult to relate to people due to experiencing things that most of the students hadn't. Their pasts certainly weren't the same, but they could relate enough that it built a fairly reliable connection between them.

“Did you hear that Scott and Emma have been seen leaving her room together?”

“Are they at it again?”

“Probably. When aren't they?”

Tommy thought about it. “They were having that cold war back in November.”

“That's true. Everyone suffered from that,” she agreed. “Did you hear the rumor that they're going to be sending the squads out on missions to rescue mutants from the police?”

“I heard that one from Jay, but I don't know if I believe it. I think it could go either way. You and I and maybe Julian are ready for that sort of thing, but I don't think everyone at the school is.”

“I've already done the hero thing plenty of times before, neither of you have,” she said with a roll of her eyes. 

“Yeah, but I'm cool under pressure and Julian has great control of his powers.”

“Whatever you say Mr. Blows-Up-Desks.”

“Hey! It's only happened twice!”

“That's twice more than most people.”

“Most people don't accidentally figure out they can blow things up.”

She rolled her eyes again and bumped him. “Whatever happens happens. My dad is tracking down that guy who caused the big explosion right now, next time I'm going with him.”

Tommy nodded. “You'll do great. You don't need me to tell you that.”

“If everyone gets sent on missions, you'll do great too. I don't doubt you're gonna be an X-Man some day,” Laura replied. They fist bumped and headed inside to clean up before school. Tommy was surprised that she'd been so open with her praise as they'd left, since she usually wasn't all that warm and fuzzy. It meant a lot to him that she had so much faith in him, and that she actually felt the need to tell him so.

\---

#### Suit Up

“So we are going to be sent on missions?” David asked.

“Yes, small ones that we think you can handle. The X-Men aren't getting more involved with the war then necessary, but we need to do our part to help people who need us,” Dani explained.

“Are we really ready for that?” Laurie asked.

Dani smiled a little. “I don't think anyone is ever ready, but I think you can do this.”

“Are we being sent on a mission now?” Sofia asked.

“Yes. The government has tracked a young hero in Connecticut. She isn't a mutant, but she is young and doesn't deserve to be arrested,” Dani said, handing over the information.

Sofia looked it over and nodded. “Are you coming with us?”

“Karma and I will be on the jet, so we can come in to help if we need us, but we believe in you guys. Be ready to leave in half an hour,” Dani said, ushering them to go get dressed.

Soon enough they were on the jet, sitting nervously together as it took off. It wasn't going to be too dangerous, so they shouldn't be too worried, but it was their first mission. Of course they were nervous! How could they not be? The ride was fairly short and landed at their destination.

Sofia led them off the ship, towards the girl's last known location. The group followed, looking around nervously for any sign of the cops. There didn't seem to be anyone around, which was comforting and nerve inducing. Where were they?

They started to track her, trying to be as stealthy as possible to avoid the potential police in the area. It took a while, but they managed to find her most likely location: a diner a few blocks away from the jet. The group entered the restaurant and took seats in the corner, trying to figure out who at the place was the one they were searching for. When their waitress arrived, they knew they'd found her.

“My name’s Amanda, what can I get for you guys to drink?” she asked, pulling out her notebook.

David leaned forward and quietly said, “We're students from the Xavier School for Gifted Youths, we're here to get you somewhere safe. The police are onto you.”

She grew pale and knelt down closer to the table. “I'm not a mutant. I'm half Kree on my mother's side.”

“We know, it's just our job to get you out of here and to the place that the Secret Avengers are at so that you can be safe and don't have to register,” Sofia explained.

As the girl was about to answer them, a loudspeaker from outside called, “Amanda Glasgow, you are under arrest for failing to register. Come out with your hands up.” The people in the diner fled the place like experienced New Yorkers and the New Mutant Squad remained.

“What are we going to do? Do you want me to take get her out of here?” Tommy asked.

Sofia looked extremely stressed and didn't seem to have an answer for him, causing the rest of the group to begin panicking. Seeing what was happening, David sighed and took charge. “Wallflower, do you think you can make enough pheromones to knock them all out quickly?” when Wallflower nodded, Prodigy returned the gesture. “Great, I need you to start working on that by the door. Wind Dancer, I need you to keep the pheromones contained until I give the signal, then blow them to knock the police out. They probably have the place surrounded, but Velocity can move faster than them. When the ones in the front are knocked out, I need you to carry her to the jet and then come back to help us get out.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Velocity agreed.

Wallflower and Wind Dancer began their part of the job as Icarus and Elixir counted about how many people were surrounding the building. Prodigy took the information they gave him and started sketching out their escape plan on a napkin. “Once you get back, Velocity, the ones in the back will have come around and will likely be shooting at us. I need you to make them stop. When they aren't shooting anymore, Wallflower and Wind Dancer will knock those guys out. Then, Icarus will carry them back to the jet and stay there with them. Velocity, you'll have to get Surge and I, then come back for Elixir.”

“Why am I last?” Elixir asked. “Not upset, just wondering.”

“Because if someone needs your help, it'll be here.”

“What's my job?” Surge asked.

“If they start getting too close to the diner, you get them away with your electricity.” When he was done explaining, he motioned for the two girls to start the plan.

As soon as the officers began to collapse, Velocity grabbed Amanda and ran out the door. Everything was slowed and she seemed a bit startled, but he easily avoided the obstacles and got to the jet. “Delivery! We're surrounded so that's fun!” he said as he ran back out again, with a distant ‘WHAT?’ as his response.

Prodigy had been correct about them shooting at the place as soon as he left it, so Velocity did what made sense to him. He collected the bullets out of the air, took the guns from them, and threw them all in the trash a block away. When he returned, he gave them all a thumbs up as the police outside began to realize their guns were gone. The duo sent another sleep bomb out before Icarus flew them back to the jet. Velocity followed quickly after with Prodigy over one shoulder and Surge over the other before returning for Elixir and then going back to the ship.

As soon as the adults saw that everyone had returned in one piece, they took off, getting out of there as quickly as possible. “Good work, guys! Good teamwork!” Dani said, having heard everything from over the earpieces. 

“Thanks, Dani,” they all echoed, feeling quite proud of themselves for getting in and out so quickly and succeeding in their mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Blowing up the desk was a nod to him blowing up his school in the comics  
> \- CIVIL WAR CIVIL WAR CIVILWAR  
> \- Prof X is just tired of everyone's shit tbh  
> -Game Night:  
> David: DM  
> Tommy: Goblin Rogue named Gleb  
> Josh: Drow Cleric named Bor  
> Jay: Aasimar Bard named Mercury  
> Laurie: Half elf wizard named Matilda  
> Sofia: Genasi Druid named Brie  
> Nori: Tiefling Barbarian named Wisher  
> \- If you want to know my reasonings for these characters for them, message me on my tumblr at r-we-taire-yet because I can talk about DnD for ages  
> \- X-Men say, "Fuck the police"  
> \- Wolverine did go after the guy responsible in the comics  
> \- Again, Rahne is way older than them, being Dani's age, so yeah it was weird and creepy but it was in the comics and I brushed over it as much as possible  
> \- Laura is so cool  
> \- Not every mission will go this smoothly... in fact most will not... because it's the X-Men and nothing can ever go their way in life


	10. Difficult Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy goes skating, gets some good news, does some badass shit, eats chocolate, and sings some songs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, a chapter published at a reasonable point after the last one! Woo! My writer's block on this story has ended and I've been able to write again! At this point I've written up to chapter 16, and oh man, not looking forward to writing the next chapter, it's gonna be sad. Chapter 11 is going to be a fun one though! Also wanna add that I apologize for any typos and such, I am but one person and Try My Best.

#### Winter Wonderland

Surprisingly, Tommy did not have much experience with ice skating. There was a difference between playing in the snow, and having everything necessary for skating, then actually going out and skating. He hadn't had the equipment or assistance in learning how to do it, so he never had.

Until that day in early February.

The lake was properly frozen over, and the teachers had planned a skating event. There was cocoa by the lakeside, and skates in all different sizes so everyone who wanted to could try it. Tommy had been resistant to the idea, but seeing the pouting faces of his friends changed his mind. That was how he ended up in the middle of the lake, clinging to David as his legs continued to slip out from beneath him.

“Relax! You're fine!” David said with a laugh.

“This isn't funny! I'm going to die!” Tommy replied as his legs slipped away from him again.

“I've got you, you're not going to fall. Just try not to move your legs too much and I'll glide you round.”

“I can't just not move my legs! That's my whole thing!”

“No, your whole thing is time stuff, you just keep using it like you're a speedster,” David corrected.

Tommy moaned. “You're no fun, why do I hang out with you?”

“Currently it's because Josh is just as terrible at this as you and Jay would be difficult to hold onto like this, and Laurie is busy teaching Nori and Sofia how to skate.”

He moaned again. “Is this supposed to be fun?”

“We can go to the shore if you-”

“No no no no no this is fine, I'm just complaining!” Tommy said quickly, not wanting to lose this moment. Despite the falling and the freezing, he was having a good time holding onto David and trying to figure out how to skate. He started to get the hang of it after a while, though he continued holding onto David for stability.

“Good job, Tommy. You're a natural. It looks like the others are taking a break, do you want to join them?” David asked.

“Yeah sure,” he replied, and the pair returned to the shore for cocoa and rest. Tommy was fine, endurance wise, but he knew his endurance was exceptional and that more normal people needed breaks. When they sat down with the others, they received the usual greetings, though Tommy didn't like the look he and David were getting from Nori. It was somewhere between sad and something else he couldn't put his finger on because she looked away when she saw that he noticed her.

“I think you should pay attention to your girlfriend,” Tommy whispered. “I think she's upset you're spending so much time with me.”

David was quiet for a second, then sighed and got up. “You're right, I'll see you later.”

With that, David went over and started hanging out with Nori. She seemed much happier, which made Tommy happier, though he was sad to lose David. Still, she deserved to spend time with David just as much as Tommy did, and he didn't want to get in the way of their relationship. He ended up spending the rest of the day with Laurie and Sofia as Laurie tried to teach them both how to skate.

\---

#### Breakups and Hookups

If there was one thing that the school cared about that occurred in February, that would be Valentine's Day. It wasn't even Valentine's Day yet, and people were all worked up about it. Hormonal teens cooped up in a small school should not be trusted with such a holiday.

Sofia and Julian were still going strong, but Laurie seemed bitter about the whole drama between her and Josh and Kevin, especially after Kevin told everyone that Josh was still seeing Rahn on the side. Tommy knew that Josh felt terrible about everything and was trying to find a way to fix it, but was finding it difficult. He also knew that Jay had been spending more time out of the room with Sooraya, and had started playing more love songs.

One thing he hadn't expecting was David showing up at his door at ten p.m. in his pajamas. “We broke up,” he mumbling, rubbing his eyes like he was half asleep.

“You and Nori? Why?” Tommy asked as he joined him out in the hallway.

“Long unimportant story. Don't you dare consider that it might be your fault,” David said.

“I won't consider that, don't worry,” he said. “Do you want to grab some ice cream and watch cartoons?”

David just nodded and Tommy led him downstairs to the main lounge. He turned on the TV and switched it over to a cartoon channel before grabbing ice cream for them. By the time he returned, David had found the comfortable blankets in the room and once Tommy sat down, they wrapped themselves up in them.

They sat together silently as they watched the show and ate their ice cream. When the ice cream was gone, they sat the bowls on the coffee table and settled in for real. Tommy didn't want to press David on what happened or how he was feeling, but he was happy that David had come to him for comfort. At some point David had laid his head on Tommy's shoulder, and now the sound of his quiet, slow breathing was there, sound asleep beside Tommy.

\---

#### Screw Sentinels

The first thing that alerted the class that something was wrong, was the loud explosion from the gate. Dr. Hank told them to stay in the classroom, but nobody listened to the blue man and followed him out. It was a cold day, and there were patches of snow all over the ground, but none of the students who ran outside the school cared all that much. The far more important issue were the three large robotic men and a stealth jet flying above them.

“SENTINELS!” Scott shouted. “GET INSIDE!”

Not all of the students listened to him, many of them, including Tommy and some of his friends, chose to stay and fight. It was hard to get a grasp of the situation, even when he slowed time down, due to the sheer amount of hysteria and chaos. The robot guys were shooting into the crowd and causing destruction all over, and everyone was running around and screaming, trying to get away.

One of the robot guys fell pretty quickly, revealing a newly returned Wolverine standing on it victorious. The crowd was thinning out now as people got inside, with only the ones who wanted to stay still being out. A laser shot flew past Tommy, barely missing him, and he managed to slow down time to save the guy behind him from getting hit.

That was when Tommy saw Josh get hit by a shot and collapse. “Josh!” he cried, running over to him. His friend had a large burn on his chest and was unresponsive. Terrified, he ran him all the way to the infirmary before returning to the fray.

As he did, he watched another one of the robots falling beside him, the Hellions cheering with their victory. The thing was crumpled in places, and torn apart in others, whether from the strength of the group or the corroding power of dust. He gave them a thumbs up, taking the time to compliment his main rivals, a gesture that those of the group that noticed him returned.

To his left, he heard the last Robot Man fall, and turned to see who defeated it. He didn’t have much of a chance to do so though, as his attention was immediately taken away by a more pressing matter. Above their head, the stealth jet suddenly speed up and crashing directly into the school, in an area he knew was likely to have many students in it at the moment.

“NO!” he shouted. Instinct pulled him as he raised his shaking hands towards where the plane hit, concentrating on his power in ways he didn't really understand. Tommy felt faint as the jet seemed to be reversing its path, the school repairing itself as time turned back. His ears rang and blood was trickling down from his nose due to the effort of the task. He felt like his head was exploding, but he didn't let go. People were hurt. One of his best friends was hurt. He couldn't let them hurt so many more. When it was a safe distance away from the school, he released the exploding feeling into the plane, blowing it up in the air before it could hit its target. Tommy barely noticed time speed back up again or the blur of red in the corner of his eye as his they rolled back in his head and everything went dark.

Some time later, though Tommy wasn't sure how long it was, he woke up in the infirmary. The place was more abuzz than usual, which didn't help his blaring headache, but it did comfort him that the plane hadn't crashed into the school. David was sitting to his left, and the stuffed bear Laurie had gotten him was in his arms. Oddly enough, Julian was sitting in a chair at the foot of his bed. In the bed to the right of his, Josh was recovering as well, though his skin now seemed to be a startling shade of gold. It hurt his head too much to look at, so he closed his eyes again and groaned, raising a far too heavy hand to rub his eyes. 

“Tommy, are you awake?” David's voice asked from nearby.

He didn't try to nod or say anything witty, simply responding with an, “Mm.”

“You were amazing, Tommy. You overloaded your powers a lot, but nothing Josh can't fix when he's finished healing himself,” David said. Even without seeing him, he could tell he was smiling from his tone. “You turned back time or something! You saved all those people. I have no idea how you did it, but it was incredibly.”

“Julian?” Tommy asked, not really able to understand what all that meant.

“He carried you here after you collapsed and he wanted to make sure you were alright,” David explained.

“I couldn't leave my teammate on the ground like that,” Julian said with a shrug. “We might not be on the same squad, but we're still teammates in track.”

Tommy had a hard time stringing together any understanding of what was going on, and simply responded with a thumbs up.

David laughed a little. “Go back to sleep. There's no use being awake right now since all you're going to be doing is suffering.”

“Mhm,” Tommy hummed back, allowing himself to drift back to sleep. Everything hurt, mostly his head, but everything hurt. It was a different hurt than his old type of hurting, though it was no better or worse. He could hardly remember what happened, nor could he have explained what he’d done if he was asked. David seemed to know though, David knew everything. Tommy thought he might just love him, but he didn’t want to think anything so hasty at a time like this. Besides, they were best friends, and there were many different kinds of love.

\---

#### Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day itself was as dramatic as he'd expected it to be. The damage that had been done to the school had quickly been fixed, and more security measures had been put into place so that they would hopefully be safer. That also meant people were less concerned about the war again and more concerned with each other. Now that classes were over for the day it was a different kind of war zone.

Tommy watched a girl throw a box of chocolates down and slither away, crying loudly. So much drama. He zipped in and took the chocolates from the ground, eating them as he made his way to the lounge. As he got to it, he saw that the place was decorated with hearts and that half of the team was arguing. What a great start. 

“Hey, guys,” Tommy said as he walked in and plopped down on the couch next to David. Nori was sitting in a chair nearby not looking at them while the rest of the group and Kevin were arguing so much that they didn't seem to notice him. 

“It isn't up to you who she dates, it's up to her! She has the right to choose!”

“Josh was in a fucked up relationship with a teacher! He's a terrible choice!”

“I'm not even dating Josh!”

“Yeah! And if she did want to date me that's her choice! I messed up but that doesn't make me a bad person!”

“If she decides to date Josh, then that's her decision! If she chooses somebody else, then she does! She's her own person!”

“What about us?! What about what we've done together? Is that nothing to you?!”

“It isn't nothing! I just don't know…”

“Hey-”

“That's it, Kevin, get out,” Jay said, pointing at the door.

“No! I want to finish this discussion! My powers are blocked right now, I can touch people again, Laurie,” Kevin said, reaching out to grab her hand.

Laurie's pained scream shocked everyone and Kevin took a step back before running. Josh swooped in and hugged her tightly as he healed the damage. He continued hugging her as she cried, looking at the others to see if they knew what to do. Tommy made eye contact with Nori and the pair quickly left the room to follow after Kevin.

“You shouldn't have done that, man,” Tommy warned as they approached him.

“I thought my powers were blocked for the moment, I thought I could touch things again,” Kevin said quietly, clearly devastated by what he'd done.

“That doesn't give you the right to touch her without asking though,” Nori said. “And you're going to leave her alone from now on.”

She and Tommy both crossed their arms and stood firm. “I know you two had a thing before, but that doesn't give you the right to try to wreck any relationship she gets. Jealousy isn't handsome on anyone,” Tommy agreed, which Nori nodded in agreement with. “So, you're going to leave her alone.”

“Are you two… threatening me?” Kevin asked.

“You hurt Laurie. You ruined Josh's standing in the school, which is only getting better again because he got hurt in the attack. We won't let you get away with doing something like that again. And, don't bring the Hellions into this, it's New Mutants Squad business. You were one of us, and you chose to leave, you chose to separate yourself from us and then continue obsessing over Laurie. We won't do anything to you right now, but remember that you need to touch people to hurt them, and neither of us do. If you bother Laurie again, we won't hesitate,” Tommy said, shifting his weight to be more intimidating.

Kevin looked down and scratched his head. “Yeah, okay.” With that he continued walking down the hall.

The pair stood firm for another moment before high fiving and heading back to the room. Laurie seemed to have calmed down some from the whole scene, and was still being hugged by Josh. They were good for each other, Tommy thought, if they could just stop the drama. Maybe after this, they might actually do that. They all spent the evening together watching cheesy hallmark movies and making fun of them while eating popcorn. When they grew tired, they headed back to their rooms to settle in.

About ten minutes passed before there was a knock on their door, which Jay quickly grabbed. Tommy watched him look around the hall for a sign of the person before looking down. “Uh, Tommy? I think it's for you.”

He frowned as he sat his music book down and joined Jay at the door. On the ground in front of them was a green heart shaped box of chocolates with a note that said ‘To Aragorn From Arwen’. Tommy picked it up and observed the note. He understood the reference but didn't understand who it came from. Obviously David was a contender, but that didn't make any sense. Why would he do this if they were best friends? In any case, he picked up the box and took it inside, enjoying the candies as he looked at the music.

\---

#### Killer Queen

It was more difficult to sneak around to do a surprise concert when you had to find a way to get a drum set literally anywhere in the school. They ended up asking Logan for help, which he agreed to, assisting them in quietly taking the set to the parlor. In the morning, they were all ready, and warmed up as quietly as possible. There was already a small crowd of people as they nodded to each other to start snapping.

“She keeps her Moet et Chandon  
In her pretty cabinet  
"Let them eat cake", she says  
Just like Marie Antoinette  
A built-in remedy  
For Kruschev and Kennedy  
At anytime an invitation  
You can't decline”

The trio had practiced together plenty of times before, but there was something very different about actually performing. With the drums now included, the sound was amazing. They were still missing a bass, but you just couldn’t do rock without a drum. Adding Nori made them more of a real group as well, rather than just two guys playing together occasionally. They still weren’t planning on becoming a real band, but they felt more like one now. Plus, she was a tie breaker on song choices and was a general asset to have around.

“She's a Killer Queen  
Gunpowder, gelatin  
Dynamite with a laser beam  
Guaranteed to blow your mind  
Anytime  
Recommended at the price  
Insatiable an appetite  
Wanna try?”

Even faster than last time, they began to get a crowd, as word had spread of the event by then and even more people wanted to witness it. Some of the crowd sang along, but because the trio didn’t have mics, if the crowd sang too loudly it drowned out the performers, so they kept to the quieter side. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, including the performers. There were teachers watching, but again none of them seemed inclined to stop them from performing.

Soon enough they moved onto the next song, which more people sang along with which the performers enjoyed. They were doing this to entertain, as long as the music could be heard, did it matter if their voices were? The trio stuck to Queen songs again, though they didn’t attempt Bohemian Rhapsody. If they had four members, maybe, but with only the three of them? They felt that they couldn’t do the song justice yet.

Tommy and Nori’s relationship had improved over the last while as they had practiced more, and especially since her and David’s breakup. They didn’t have any reason to feel bad about each other anymore, and they had many things in common, like being willing to kick asses and liking the same kinds of music, and enjoying going fast. There were still things they didn’t agree on, which was alright, like a differing opinion on Sooraya’s clothing and other things that came from growing up differently. They would never be best friends, he felt, but now that they weren’t getting upset over David, there was less reason for them to be upset with each other.

They played their last song before standing and bowing to the audience, which got them cheers from the crowd. What they weren’t expecting was for them to start yelling, “ENCORE ENCORE ENCORE ENCORE!” The trio looked at each other before huddling up and whispering to each other, trying to figure out what to play. Once a decision was made, they got back to their places and began to play.

“Oh, let's go

Steve walks warily down the street  
With the brim pulled way down low  
Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet,  
Machine guns ready to go  
Are you ready, hey, are you ready for this?   
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?   
Out of the doorway the bullets rip  
To the sound of the beat

Another one bites the dust  
Another one bites the dust  
And another one gone, and another one gone  
Another one bites the dust  
Hey, I'm gonna get you, too  
Another one bites the dust”

As they began to play again, the crowd cheered once more before quieting down to listen. When the song finished, they stood up once again and bowed. This time the crowd did begin to disperse. They received many compliments from the audience as they left, from students and teachers alike. Once the last of the people left, they gave each other fist bumps, which had sort of become their ‘thing’, and smiled.

“Good job, guys, we sounded great!” Jay said, taking a drink of his water.

“We need a bass, but otherwise yeah,” Nori agreed.

“One day we will find a bass in need of a home,” Tommy joked, stretching his fingers.

“Yeah, but still! We did good today,” Jay said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I do not know how to skate, I am Nerd  
> \- Tommy enjoys complaining  
> \- I also do not know how to cope with break up? Ice cream? Cartoons? Tbh I just played video games  
> \- Tommy refuses to call things by their real names, Dr. Hank? Yes  
> \- I was so excited about this scene, my dudes, Tommy is so cool  
> \- The Kevin thing seemed important but without M-Day I didn't have a good reason for him to doubt his powers so like, it be like that sometimes  
> \- They're fucking nerds  
> \- ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST [and then returns in Endgame I suppose]


	11. Different Drops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy and David slip up, he pinches Sofia, the Boys play games, Tommy and David talk, and then Tommy and Jay talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any typos in this chapter, hit a depression bit and it's hard to Do Things, but luckily this is one of the most important chapters so I've checked it over repeatedly. Warning for the chapter! The first scene has a bit of injury talk, not graphic but if you aren't in a good place to hear danger bad times, don't feel bad about skipping it! If you do have to skip over it, I will write a summery in the bottom notes. It's a very important scene because of one of the things that happened during it, but basically they're both idiots. This is one of my favorite chapters in the story I swear.

#### A Mission Gone Wrong (or very very right)

Their second mission was destined to be more difficult. After the success of the first one, they were trusted more, and sent on a retrieval mission to rescue a guy who was already arrested and being taken to a compound deep in the woods. The forest around them was thick and hard to navigate, and they knew they were close to the edge of a ravine, but had no way of telling just how close until they found it. They decided to split up, with Icarus, Elixir, and Wind Dancer going to investigate the building and Prodigy, Velocity, Surge, and Wallflower setting up a perimeter and making a plan to stop the incoming truck from reaching its destination.

“Alright, what are we going to do?” asked Surge as she pushed a branch away from her face. Everything was damp from the recent snow, which wasn’t helping anything. They were walking in a direction they were fairly certain the road was in, but they wouldn’t be surprised if they were incorrect. Their compass had shown to be faulty already because it had been damaged in the rough flight there.

“We can’t use Wallflower’s pheromones until they get out of the car for many reasons so, Surge, I need you to send an electric surge at the truck to cause it to malfunction. If you do it like we trained, it won’t cause damage to the people inside the truck, and when they step out to investigate, Wallflower will knock them out. If there’s a guard in the back, they will most likely get out at that point to see what’s happening, giving Velocity the chance to run inside, grab the prisoner, and get back to the jet. All we need to do then is get back there too and wait for the others to finish their part of the mission,” Prodigy explained.

As soon as he finished speaking, they had to stop walking, because they found themselves at the edge of the ravine. It was a pretty deep drop, at least two stories with a rough river cutting through it. Directly beneath them, and in some other parts as far as they could see, there were sandy banks.

“Well, I guess it’s time to turn around 180 degrees and try again,” Velocity joked.

“You’re telling me, alright let’s-” as Prodigy said that, his boot slipped on the wet grass by the edge of the ravine, and he instinctively reached out, grabbing a hold of Velocity’s arm as he fell over the side, taking him with him.

The pair had no way to stop themselves and no Icarus to swoop in and catch them, meaning they landed hard on the thin, sandy bank they had just been looking at. Tommy couldn’t help but cry out from the pain now shooting through his left hip and leg, tears springing up in his eyes. David didn’t seem to be doing much better, grunting and holding onto his right shoulder.

“Oh my god!” Surge exclaimed, looking over the edge.

“Run and get the others,” David ordered, his teeth gritted from the pain. “I’m pretty sure my shoulder is broken, and there’s something wrong with Velocity’s leg so he won’t be able to run us out. We need Icarus and Elixir. Wallflower, stay here in case anything bad happens.”

Surge nodded and took off running, leaving Laurie alone at the top. She stayed a safe distance away from the edge, so that she wasn’t at risk for falling over as well, but she was definitely scared and worried. “Everything is going to be okay!” she called.

“Yeah!” David called back as he sat up and held his arm. Tommy looked up at him with tears still in his eyes, not touching his leg because he was afraid to make it worse. “It’s going to be okay. Josh will be here soon and will be able to fix us up.”

“Fuck, my leg hurts,” Tommy whispered.

“Where exactly?” David asked, reaching over with his good arm to see if there was a clear break.

“Hip. Fuck, I felt it break, and my knee.”

“Josh can fix it. We’ll only be hurting for a little longer.”

“How’s the shoulder?” Tommy asked, trying to take his mind off the pain.

“It’s very broken,” David said with a bit of a sad laugh. “I’m so sorry I pulled you in too, I didn’t mean to.”

“Instinct says to grab something as you fall,” Tommy said as he tried to sit up. “No big d-” Before he could finish, the sand beneath his hand slipped out from under him and sent him into the raging water beside them. He quickly grabbed onto David with his free hand and accidentally pulled him in as well.

They were pulled under the rough water and back to the surface. Unable to do much but reach for debris along the sides, they clung to each other helplessly. They were thrown this way and that by the current, hitting rocks and such as they were. The water was freezing, and the periods of time they were pushed under were terrifying as it was impossible to know if they would get stuck down there. They were so filled with adrenaline that their breaks seemed of little concern now.

“David, the branch!” Tommy shouted over the water, seeing a branch extending far enough that they could reach that was stuck under a rock on another sandy bank. David reached out to grab it, but didn’t have enough strength in that arm to do anything but keep them from continuing down the river. Tommy reached forward once they were stationary, and together they pulled themselves onto the bank.

Once they were on dry land again, they laughed and kissed each other with relief that they had survived that. David’s lips were cold and tasted like the water that they were both soaking with, but it was just as wonderful as he’d imagined. They quickly realized what they’d done though and pulled back, both startled.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t- I-” David stuttered.

“You- I- we-” Tommy stuttered in return. “That didn’t happen.”

“What?” David asked.

“It was a slip, we were so relieved to be alive that it just kind of happened. We don’t need to tell anyone it happened,” Tommy said.

David stared at him for a moment before nodding, looking both upset and concerned. “Yeah, yeah it was a slip, it was instinct.”

“It was instinct,” he agreed. There was a pause before he added, “We’re even now, on the falling and dragging the other with us.”

“Are you guys okay?!” Laurie called from above, having finally caught up to them.

“Yeah! We got a little banged up though,” Tommy called.

“Oh shit, Tommy, you’re bleeding,” David said, putting his hand on the point on his forehead that Tommy had just realized was stinging. “Your hair is turning pink by the way.”

“Fuck, I don’t want to be Quentin,” Tommy muttered, causing David to laugh a little.

“It doesn’t look like it’ll kill you before the others get here. Wallflower!” he called up to her. “How will they find us if you’re here?”

“I left a pheromone trail for them to follow!” she called back.

“Good!” David said, keeping pressure on Tommy’s head. He liked the feeling of David’s hand on his head, and wanted to kiss him again, but didn’t want to make a scene. His body’s reactions to everything were kicking in, and he felt everything growing hazy. Tommy could hear David saying something to him, but he was so cold and his leg was screaming and his head felt like it was echoing around, so there wasn’t much he could do to respond to him.

The next thing he knew, Josh was standing over him with a concerned expression on his face.

“Wh-whoa,” Tommy said, quickly sitting up. “What?”

“You passed out,” David said, looking as though he had already been healed.

“What about the mission?” Tommy asked.

“Oh shit! What time is it?” David asked.

“No way, Moonstar and Karma already handled it when Surge told them what happened. Our only job right now is to get back to the jet in one piece,” Icarus said, picking up all three boys and flying them back up to the top.

“Good,” Prodigy said. “Mission successful then, even if we did mess up.”

“Don’t feel too bad,” Wind Dancer said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “They didn’t seem upset about the slip up at all, other than that you guys got really hurt.”

Prodigy nodded. “Right, then let’s get back to the jet. I think it’s about time to head home.”

\---

#### Luck of the Irish

Tommy pinched Sofia.

“What was that for?!” she cried, rubbing her arm.

“It's St. Patrick's Day!” he said, pinching her again. “You aren't wearing green!”

Josh swooped into the lounge and threw a green beaded necklace around her neck. “You're safe!” He was wearing a green shirt himself, and many beaded necklaces. “This is why I bought these!”

“So you can throw them at people?” Tommy teased.

“No, so I can save them from people like you!” Josh teased back.

Sofia just rolled her eyes at their antics and shifted the necklace. “Do I get to keep this?”

“If everyone I gave those to gave them back, I'll be drowning in beads, and David will freak,” Josh said with a laugh. “Please keep it.”

At the mention of David, Tommy's heart hurt. They hadn't really spoken since the last mission, and he was terrified of what would be said when they did. He couldn't believe he'd messed up and actually kissed David. David probably hated him now, how could he not? Tommy kissed him! He ruined their friendship because of the stupid crush that he couldn't block out.

“Is that the sweater Magneto gave you?” Sofia asked, startling Tommy out of his thoughts. 

“I'm sorry, what?”

“Is that the sweater-”

“Oh yeah, it is,” he replied.

“Are you alright? You've been zoning out more than usual since the mission,” Josh asked.

Tommy was a bit startled that he'd noticed that. Even after having these friends for months, basic friend activities like that still surprised him. “I'm fine, I've just been thinking a lot.”

“Don't let it get to you, Like Dani said, accidents happen, we're all just happy you two survived,” Sofia said.

“I know, it… was just a lot,” Tommy said. Not a moment later, David walked into the room and Tommy stood up. “I'm gonna head back to the dorm. I think I might just need a nap.”

“O-oh okay, have fun I guess?” Sofia said as they all watched him zip out of the room.

\---

#### Boys Will Be Boys

“You're late!” Tommy said as Josh entered the room. It was the usual game night, not the one with everyone, the one where the guys got together and played video games while the girls got together and did Other Things which Tommy thought for sure was code for raising hell or something.

“Sorry! I was saying goodbye to Laurie,” Josh said, sitting on the couch. “Why aren't we playing Smash?”

“Ugh, love. We decided we're gonna play Ever Have I Never instead and finally open the Cards Against The Populace afterwards,” Tommy explained, handing him a soda.

“Why do you do that?” Jay asked. “Why do you call things by the wrong name all the time? With the way you do it, it has to be deliberate.”

“I spent way too much time alone as a kid,” he said dismissively. “Alright let's go, I'll start, last person to have soda left wins. Never have I ever gone a school year without getting in trouble.”

The other three boys laughed and took drinks. “Alright, my turn. Never have I ever been arrested,” David said. Tommy rolled his eyes and took a drink.

“Never have I ever… read the Lord of the Rings,” Jay said, causing both David and Tommy to groan and take sips.

“My turn? Never have I ever… performed on stage,” Josh said, causing Jay and Tommy to drink and David to look confused.

“Does a spelling bee count?” he asked.

“Yes!” Tommy and Jay exclaimed, which got the other two to snicker and David to take a sip.

“Never have I ever dated anyone,” Tommy said, causing all three of the others to drink.

“Never have I ever… failed a test,” David said, causing the other three to drink.

Jay thought about it for a second. “Never have I ever kissed a guy.”

David didn't take a sip, watching Tommy to see what he did. Tommy did take a drink, which got David to take one as well. When they got looks from the others Tommy said, “I once went to a summer camp. I'm not saying any more.”

“When was this?!” Jay asked, amused.

“I said I wouldn't say anything else!”

“Yeah but when!”

Tommy rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “It was the summer between seventh and eighth grade. Because it was a summer camp. I'm fifteen! How many summers have I had to choose from?!”

“That's why I asked!” Josh said.

“Anyway-”

“Was that your first kiss?” Jay asked. “Was it on a dare?”

“It was my first kiss. I won't say why it happened. It's Josh's turn.”

“Anyway! Never have I ever driven a car,” Josh said. Tommy was the only one to drink.

They all gave him looks again, which he shrugged again. “I've done a lot of stupid stuff. Never have I ever gotten through a school year without missing a day.” Josh was the only one who drank.

“Never have I ever seen The Little Mermaid,” David said.

“What?!” Tommy exclaimed.

“I never saw it! My parents thought it was too violent then I grew out of it. There's a lot of movies I haven't seen,” David said.

“We're having a Disney binge. I'd watch the VHS tapes over and over as a kid, Disney raised me more than my parents did,” Tommy said. 

“VHS tapes?! How are you our age and watched VHS tapes?!” David asked.

“Because my family couldn't afford a DVD player until I was older and they could get the VHS tapes for cheaper since nobody wanted them,” explained Tommy.

“Yikes, okay, never have I ever gone rock climbing,” Jay said. David and Tommy drank again.

“Never have I ever… played an instrument,” Josh said, causing Jay and Tommy to drink.

“I'm out,” Tommy admitted, shaking his empty can.

“I'm almost out too,” David said.

“Me too,” Jay added.

“I guess I won then?” Josh asked.

Tommy snickered. “Congrats! You've done the least! Let's play Cards Against the Populace.” He ran to grab the box and returned. The group spent the rest of the evening playing that, and making the worst jokes possible. It was almost like everything was back to normal.

\---

#### Time To Talk

Everything was not back to normal. Tommy knew as soon as he walked into David's room for studying that everything was definitely not back to normal. David was acting awkward and stiff, like they were strangers or something, and it was killing Tommy. Why did he have to ruin one of the only good things he'd gotten in his life?

“Okay I can't keep pretending, we need to talk,” David said, closing his textbook. “What are we doing?”

“I thought we were studying but I could be wrong,” he replied, trying to be humorous.

“I mean between us. What are we doing?” David asked.

Tommy squirmed, uncomfortable with the serious nature of the conversation. Instead of answering, he looked out the window at the dark sky.

David sighed. “I know you suck at this but you need to try to work with me here. Relationships, even friend ones, are a two sided thing.”

“I don't know what we're doing,” Tommy mumbled. “I'm sorry I messed everything up. I know you hate me now and I can't stand that, but I get it.”

“Hate you?” David asked, looking absolutely confused. “Tommy, I thought you hated me! You've been avoiding me ever since it happened! I kissed you, I thought you were upset about that.”

“No! I was upset at myself for doing it, not at you! I told you to pretend it didn't happen because I thought you didn't want it to have happened!”

“No no, I really did! I thought you said that because you were up-”

David was cut off by Tommy wrapping his arms around David's shoulders and kissing him deeply. He leaned into the kiss, relaxing as it went on longer than their first. When they broke apart Tommy said, “I'm pretty sure I've had a crush on you for a while, I pretty much knew it when you started dating Nori.”

“I started dating Nori because I thought you were straight and, I mean I liked her but she knew I liked you too. It's why we broke up! She helped me give you those chocolates!” David explained.

“Aragorn, really? I'm totally Pippin,” Tommy said.

“You're Aragorn and you know it!” David disagreed, kissing Tommy again. This kiss lasted longer than the first two, deep and strong. There was pulling on clothes and the messing up of hair, and heat and passion and love.

And then Josh started to open the door. They broke apart with wide eyes and Tommy did the only reasonable thing to do in that situation: climb out the window, closing it behind him. He could hear their muffled talking inside the room, but hardly had time to listen in because he felt himself getting pulled off of the building by the familiar sensation of telekinesis.

Emma spun him to face her and gave him a look. “Hello, Thomas.”

“It's Tommy but hey, what's up?” Tommy replied casually.

“Currently? You. Why did you climb out the window?” she asked.

“Uhhhhh, I was startled.”

“And your first reaction was to climb out the window.”

“Yes it was.”

Emma dropped him to the ground, clearly amused. “Go back to kissing your boyfriend. It's cold outside.” With that, she continued on her walk, leaving Tommy in a snowbank.

Boyfriend, huh? Not bad.

\---

#### Time To Talk Two: Jay Edition

“Hey, Tommy, can I get some advice?” Jay asked as he sat on his bed.

Tommy looked up from his homework and turned around to look at his friend. “Yeah? What’s up?”

“I… I want to ask Sooraya to the dance…”

“Oh! Yeah, you totally should,” he said, moving to sit on his bed across from Jay.

Jay sighed and scratched his head. “I really like her, you know? I’m worried I’m going to… I don’t know, offend her? Make her uncomfortable? I don’t want to lose my chance with her.”

“If you really like her, then it is worth the chance of losing her to get her, you know what I mean? ‘Cause if you don’t ask her out, you’ll never get to be with her, but if you do ask her out, you do get the chance for her to say yes.”

“I know, I just… I don’t know how to ask…”

“You are way more cool than me, I don’t know why I’m the guy you’re asking,” Tommy joked.

“You’re one of my best friends, and you’ve nudged me towards Sooraya before. I thought maybe you might have some advice,” he said with a sigh.

Tommy sat up at that, then leaned closer. “Alright, here’s what you do, okay? You tell her that you like her. You ask if she’d like to go to the dance with you. If she says she doesn’t want to go to the dance, you ask if she’d be willing to try a more quiet, personal date. I can see she might not be into the dance scene, you know?”

Jay nodded. “So I tell her I like her, ask her to the dance, and say that I’m willing to do whatever she’s comfortable with to spend time with her.”

“Exactly. If you really like her, and you really want to be with her, you have to be willing to do what is necessary to be with her. If you are, she’ll meet you halfway, I can promise you that. She’s a nice person, and not the type you want to let go of. You two are nice together! And after everything you’ve both been through, you both deserve that love and support, if you can give it to each other,” Tommy said with a shrug.

“This is why I came to you for advice,” Jay said with a smile. “You act like you don’t know shit, but you do.”

“Psh, whatever you say. I don’t know anything ever in my life,” Tommy said, smiling.

“Thank you though, seriously. I’m gonna do it, I’m going to ask her out.”

“Good! Yeah! Not tonight though she might think it’s weird.”

“Oh yeah totally tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary: David and Tommy fall off a cliff and get injured but survive, kissing after their harrowing experience which causes them both to shut down again.
> 
> \- I swear this is one of the chapters I was most excited to write  
> \- They're both such disaster bis  
> \- I love St. Patrick's day because it's the day I can bother my sister the most (Hi sis I know you will read this in the future I love you)  
> \- Tommy's 'sorry what' and then responding to the question is a VERY ADHD thing I had to add in  
> \- Him kissing a boy in camp is a reference to a Bo Burnham song, if you get it, nice  
> \- I love the scene where they confess, especially the part where Emma holds him in the air because HE JUMPED OUT THE WINDOW LIKE THE DISASTER BOY HE IS  
> \- More LOTR references, Tommy is both Pippin and Aragorn but in totally different ways  
> \- I love Jay and Sooraya together, they're so good  
> \- If you've read this far, congrats! You get to hear a secret! Next chapter is massively important and will include major crossovers with certain people Tommy knows in canon ;)


	12. Different Destinies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy meets a bunch of people very suddenly, gets some answers, jumps in puddles, does what he should have done months ago, and teases a certain dark haired boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First scene there is a hot mess because there is so much going on, but when aren't these people hot messes? It's comic books, we wouldn't be here if we didn't like hot messes. This is a big chapter with lots of background information! It also made me laugh a few times as I was editing it, please let me know if you guys also enjoy the story, I don't get a lot of comments and so I really don't know.
> 
> Trigger warning! In the first scene, Tommy has an anxiety attack. It's an important scene but it can be skipped if you can't read that sort of thing right now, don't worry!

#### Who the @#$% are the Young Avengers (Take 2)

Their third mission turned out very differently than they had expected. They were tasked with meeting up with a young team from Captain America's side of the war to rescue another young group of heroes from the Bad Guys. There were many things about the whole event that turn a turn the New Mutants Squad hadn't been expecting. One of those ways was the fact that the other group was late.

The squad was at the meeting point, waiting very patiently in most cases, or impatiently in others. When the other group finally touched down next to the jet, it was half an hour after they were told to arrive. They made their way out of their ship plane thing bickering with each other like siblings. Velocity immediately knew who they were though, he'd looked them up enough to recognize them on sight. And right there was the guy that had been giving him all the trouble.

“Hey, you!” Velocity called to the Dark Haired Boy, pointing at him to get his attention. “You stole my face!”

The guy was startled by the accusation, then even more so when he noticed what Velocity looked like. Tommy took off his goggles to give him an even better look, going up to him as well. “What- how-?”

“I'm Tommy by the way, or Velocity if we're going by code names,” Tommy said, reaching out to shake his hand.

He shook the hand, still looking freaked out. “Billy, Wiccan. I'm… Why are we identical besides the hair?”

“I've been wondering about that since the first time you guys were on TV. I saw you on screen and was like, whoa, that's me, but it wasn't me, you know? David, I mean Prodigy can vouch for me on that,” he said, punching David's shoulder.

“He called you a pod person,” David said, rubbing his arm.

“This is really freaky,” Billy said as he rubbed his forehead.

The boy that looked like a robot, or perhaps the robot that looked like a boy raised his hand. “If I might make a suggestion, I think it might be possible that you two are the Scarlet Witch's sons.”

“What?!” Tommy cried. “No! No no no no no no no, we'll worry about all that after the mission. Then we can go to Professor X and ask questions. If anyone knows, it's him.”

Billy nodded. “I'll go with you to talk to him, yeah. I agree, if anyone knows, it's him.”

Together, the two groups made a plan for infiltrating the base and extracting their targets. If the plan went perfectly, they would all have been surprised, considering the situation and the forces they were up against. Two very different groups attempting to work together as a team for the first time in order to rescue a third team was just a lot to try to organize. They snuck into the building easier than they had expected, though given how easy it was, they should have expected the trap that sprang. As soon as they got into the main hall, walls closed around them with anti-mutant power fields inside of them.

Tommy was pretty sure the day couldn’t get any weirder or more upsetting from there, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it could. He was immediately filled with panic and dread as the memories of where he’d been that time last year rushed to mind. Billy seemed to feel it as well, or perhaps felt an echo of what Tommy was feeling, he wouldn’t put it past the universe to make that a thing they had to deal with now. The box they were in was moving and he couldn’t breathe and everything was too small and the walls were shrinking and-

David was in front of him, had his hands on Tommy’s face. He was saying things Tommy wasn’t really comprehending because everything seemed loud and terrifying, but his presence was soothing.

“David,” he croaked, holding onto his hands to ground himself. If David was there, it wasn’t the same as before, they wouldn’t get him like before. They would get out.

“Make him calm down!” one of the Young Avengers cried. “He’s making Wiccan panic too!”

“He was experimented on before and has PTSD from it, Prodigy is calming him down, give him a minute!” Sofia shot back.

“I’m here, focus on me, not them,” David said, drawing Tommy’s eyes back to him. “Can you tell me three things you see?”

“You, um… walls… Sofia…” Tommy mumbled. He knew he should be using code names but that was a bit too much at the moment.

“Good, that’s good. Can you tell me two things you hear?”

“Cage moving… you…”

“Good! And one thing you can feel.”

“Spandex,” he muttered, pulling a little smile. He did the rhythmic tapping he usually did to calm himself down onto David’s hands, a piano warm up he’d learned many years ago. The difficulty of it grounded him further and helped get out some of his nervous energy.

“Yeah, good, good. How are you feeling?” David asked.

“Little better. Drained,” Tommy replied.

Suddenly, Billy was beside them, not touching Tommy but close to them. “We’ll get out of here. I won’t let them hurt you.”

Tommy could feel a pull on his mind or soul or something. This stranger didn’t feel like a stranger. He didn’t know how to respond, so he just nodded. It was so strange to see someone who looked so much like him. It was stranger that they both seemed to have this odd connection like they were twins or something.

“Watch him,” David said to Billy as he stood up and started looking at sensors creating the field.

Billy gave him a lopsided smile, which faded when Tommy began to panic again as the cage stopped moving in a place that seemed like a jail room. “Hey! Look at me, not out there! What’s your favorite movie?”

“Um, I don’t know…”

“That’s okay! Do you have a favorite book?”

“Lord of the Rings? All of them?”

“You like the Lord of the Rings too?!” Billy said with such a cheerful face that it pulled Tommy out of his panic some more.

“Yeah, David too,” Tommy said, nodding towards David.

“Same with Teddy!” Billy said, pointing his thumb at the big green guy. Tommy gave Teddy a little wave.

“Um, excuse me?” a little voice called from behind Tommy’s back, he and the others turned to look at who spoke, and saw the group they had been sent to save. The speaker hardly looked like she was in middle school. “Is that guy okay?”

“I’m okay,” Tommy said. He could not let that kid go through what he’d gone through. He had to keep it together so that they could get them all out. Velocity stood back up and rubbed his eyes. “I’m okay. We’re going to get you guys out of here.”

“Yes! I’m Wind Dancer, Prodigy is going to get the sensors turned off and then we’ll get you guys out of yours, and we’ll get out!” Wind Dancer added.

One of the guys in the group in the group shook his head. “We need to take this place down with us. They’ve done… really bad stuff to most of us, we can’t let that stand.”

“We’re not going down with this ship, but we can definitely wreck this place as we leave,” Velocity agreed.

“Good, I’m Chase by the way. You already met Molly. The blond girl is Karolina, the black haired girl is Nico, and the other guy is Xavin. Who are you guys?” Chase asked.

“I’m Wiccan,” said Wiccan. “This is Hulking, Patriot, Stature, Vision, and Hawkeye. We’re the Young Avengers, sent by Captain America” As he said each name he pointed at the person it belonged to.

“And I’m Velocity. Like Wind Dancer said, she’s Wind Dancer and the one working on the sensors is Prodigy. Quiet blond is Wallflower, guy with wings is Icarus, the gold one is Elixir, and the one with the cool things on her arms is Nico- I mean Nori- I mean-”

“Surge. My name is Surge.”

“Yep. We’re the New Mutants Squad, we’re basically X-Men in training,” Velocity concluded.

Nico crossed her arms. “If we’re using team names, we go by the Runaways.”

“Why are you two identical?” Molly asked.

“We have no idea,” Tommy and Billy said at the same time, causing her to giggle.

Velocity suddenly felt his strength rush back to him and he turned to the others. “Can I do the honors?”

“What are you going to-” Patriot started as Velocity blew up the bars keeping them caged, “that works.”

Alarms began going off as soon as he did that, so he scouted ahead to see how long they had before any guards got there. “We have about five minutes to get to the door.” While he was gone, the others had managed to get the Runaways out of their cage. They were a bit worse for ware, but seemed able to get themselves out without much difficulty.

“Can you guide us out?” Hawkeye asked him.

Velocity looked at Prodigy who smirked, “Yeah, I got us. We want to head to the heart of things though, don’t we? To destroy everything?”

“Definitely destroying everything,” Karolina said, now a rainbow.

“DESTRUCTION!” Molly agreed as Elixir finished tapping each of them to make sure they were alright.

Prodigy led them out of the room and down the hall. Soon they came face to face with the guards that Velocity had mentioned before. All three teams together made easy work of them, and continued on their path. When they got to the control room, Vision seemed to plug himself into the computer there and the screens of all of the computers in the room rushed like crazy as he searched through all the files and shut everything down permanently.

Getting out of the building was even easier than getting in, because all of the systems were turned off and all of the people inside were too busy trying to figure out what was happening to notice the large group of teenagers. It took them a bit of time, but they managed to get back to their transports without problem. The Runaways had been hesitant to go with the Young Avengers back to their base, but after everything they’d just gone through they thought it best. The Young Avengers themselves agreed to go to the Xavier’s School to hopefully get some answers as soon as they’d completed their side of the mission. With that, they departed.

\---

#### Explanations are Nice

Billy and Tommy sat beside each other in Professor Xavier’s office, both feeling quite nervous. They wanted answers, but they both knew that their whole worlds could be rocked at their very foundation in a matter of minutes. Tommy was just glad Dani was there too, whether to help explain or give moral support, he didn’t know, but if she was there he was confident everything would be alright.

It was two days since they’d last seen each other, but they were still identical. Tommy’s hair was actually about the same length as Billy’s by then, which didn’t help anything. The moment that the professor was taking to collect his thoughts felt like a lifetime for him, though he wasn’t sure if it felt like that for anyone else and didn’t try to ask.

“I know you two must have a lot of questions,” the professor finally said.

“No SHIT, Professor,” Tommy exclaimed. “Sorry. Sorry, Dani. I just. No shit.”

“I understand, this must be quite confusing. The best place to start is at the very beginning. About fifteen years ago, on Halloween night, the Scarlet Witch, otherwise known as Wanda Maximoff gave birth to twin sons who she named Thomas and William. For reasons unknown to us, when the boys were two, she disappeared with no trace of taking the boys with her. We knew the boys were still alive, but we couldn’t find them due to William’s innate ability to be undetectable, and what we assumed was a similar spell she put on Thomas. We did not think they were dead, or she would have destroyed the city of New York, but we also did not think she took them with her, wherever she went, due to the fact that she didn’t pack anything for the boys when she packed for herself.

“Years passed with no way of knowing where they were, until we found Tommy in that warehouse. I didn’t truly suspect you might be Thomas Maximoff until you flicked Quentin. To be able to do that, you had to be extremely powerful, and likely a warper of some sort. Then, about three or four months later, a dark haired boy otherwise identical to our Tommy surfaced in New York City, who quickly showed himself to be a reality warper. That’s you, Billy.”

“But… I’m not adopted,” Tommy said quietly.

“Actually you are,” Dani said, handing him the envelope from before. “When your mother gave me your records, that included your adoption papers.”

Tommy looked to Billy to see if he knew anything about the whole thing. Judging by his shocked expression, he did not.

“I knew I was adopted, but I had no idea I was a twin. My parents would have told me if they knew,” Billy said just as quietly.

“Erik and I have long suspected that she separated you two to keep you safe from something. Now that you’re older and in a more public position, I don’t think keeping you apart will protect you any longer, if something is after you,” the professor explained.

“Wait, I can’t be detected by things?!” Billy asked.

“You cannot. Your parents had no idea you were there until you were born,” the professor said.

“Ha! I’m older!” Tommy cried.

“Shut up! How far apart are we?”

“About twelve minutes.”

“See! Not a big deal!”

“I’m older! I’m an older brother!”

“By twelve minutes!”

“I am the dominant twin! One twin to rule them all!”

“No you aren’t!”

“Yes I am!”

“No you aren’t!”

“Boys!” Dani cried, ending the argument.

“William-”

“Billy. Call me Billy, please,” Billy interrupted.

The professor took a deep breath. “Billy, we have an open door for you if you want to become a student at the school and be closer to your brother. If you do not wish to come to school here, I also understand, and you are welcome to come visit whenever you want.”

“Yeah… I need to stay with my team, and my parents. I will come to visit though! I promise,” Billy said, giving his brother a smile. “I have a twin now, I can’t just abandon him.”

\---

#### Puddle Jumping

Laurie was pulling Tommy towards the front door, and he playfully resisted her. “Even I've gone puddle jumping before! How haven't you?” she asked continuing to drag him. They weren't even wearing rain clothes, just some things that were acceptable to get dirty. 

“I wasn't allowed to make a mess so I usually avoided puddles!” he replied, laughing. Tommy could easily carry her somewhere far away, but he let her drag him outside while pretending to fight to stay inside.

“Well you can't avoid that today!” she said with a laugh as they suddenly found themselves in the rain. “Come on!”

Tommy rolled his eyes for show but smiled and started dragging her out further into the field. “How do we do this?”

She laughed and jumped in the puddle he had started dragging her towards. He followed suit, creating a large splash along with her. The rain was falling hard, and they'd been drenched practically since they stepped foot outside, but there was nothing quite like jumping around in puddles. Tommy felt like a little kid again, which was an accomplishment because he'd had such an unhappy childhood. Right then though, jumping in puddles with Laurie, he felt his age again, and he felt happy. 

“Oh come on come on there's a really good one over there usually!” she said, dragging him across the field and splashing as much as she could on the way.

He used his longer legs to get there before her and send the water splashing up at her just before she got to the puddle herself. Laurie laughed and pushed him gently, hitting the water at him from the few inches that had stuck in that spot. Tommy splashed her back, creating a back and forth that resulted in them both slipping and falling, getting covered in mud as well as water. They didn't care though, that was half of the fun.

As they sat there laughing, muddy and soaking wet, thunder boomed loudly in the distance. They looked at each other, startled, and quickly ran back into the mansion. Even though they took their shoes off at the door, they left wet footsteps as they walked down the hall. It would be quite the laundry day, but the pair washed up as much as they could and changed before making tea and watching the rain together.

\---

#### To The Ball!

Having a school dance in the middle of a war was an interesting choice on the school's behalf, but Tommy was sure the students would riot if they'd canceled it. The dance seemed like it was the event of the year for most of these people, which Tommy didn't really get. It was just a fancy party! Most of the time, freshman couldn't even go!

Still, if there was one thing Tommy loved, it was a party. Dani took them all out to get clothes for the occasion, and Tommy was rocking a green suit with a yellow tie, while David wore a matching yellow suit with a matching green tie. Nobody knew they were going together as a date, which was what they'd agreed upon. Neither of them were ready to be fully out and everything yet. If people found out, they wouldn't be upset, but they weren't telling everyone they were together either.

The cafeteria had been decorated for the event, and there was someone working a DJ booth or something for music. It was loud and dark and everything a school dance was supposed to be. Tommy had never been to one before, but it seemed very much like the movies he'd watched growing up. He'd managed to lose all of his friends though, which was unfortunate.

Jay and Sooraya had decided not to go to the dance, and were quietly hanging out in one of the lounges, from the last Tommy heard. He was glad they'd worked that out, he knew how much Jay wanted to be with her, so it was nice to see it happening in a healthy way. Occasionally he'd see glimpses of Laurie and Josh dancing through the crowd, but there were too many people to get to them and he didn't want to interrupt. He had no idea where Nori was, but he knew she was at the party with some friends in another squad.

Sofia, he knew, was with Julian somewhere in the room. They'd been more and more open with the relationship as the majority of the struggles between the two Squads faded into friendly rivalry. Between Jay and Sooraya, and Sofia and Julian, and the mutual respect that Tommy and Julian had for each other as part of the track team and major helpers during the attack on the school, there didn't seem to be as much of a reason to fight. They were still competitive, of course, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been in the past.

Finally, Tommy found David. “There you are!” he said over the music.

“You're the one that wandered off!” David replied, smiling.

“Whatever!” Tommy replied. The song changed to a familiar one and he gave David a look. “It's our song! Let's dance!”

He pulled David into a dance as Somebody to Love played in the background. They ignored everyone else in the room who were treating it like the bop it was, and slow danced together Tommy's head on David's shoulder. There wasn't much better than that. Tommy lifted his head when That Part of the song began, and asked David if it was okay to kiss him with an expression. David just smiled back and the pair kissed in the middle of the crowded cafeteria right as the crescendo hit. It was magical.

Maybe there was something to be said about dances after all. 

\---

#### Sibling Bonding

The twins, before going their separate ways after the meeting with the professor, had gotten each other's phone numbers and promised to get together and hang out sometime soon. They'd spent a great deal of time texting and getting to know one another. That did not make planning a get together any easier. Between the missions they were sporadically sent on and their own difficulties with planning, figuring out the time and place was more of a challenge than either of them had planned. 

About two weeks after they'd met, they were wandering the streets of Salem Center together with money to burn. It was a nice late April day, warm enough for them both to accidentally be wearing similar graphic tees and jeans. Tommy had on a gray shirt with an angry pusheen face on it, while Billy wore a black shirt with a cup noodles thing on it.

“You know, the fact that Magneto gave me Hanukkah presents makes a lot more sense if they were already pretty sure I was his grandson,” Tommy said.

Billy nodded sagely. “Captain America figured it out too apparently, and that explains why he babied me more than the others.”

“Did he give you Hanukkah gifts?”

“No.”

“I win then.”

“At what?!”

“Getting cool stuff from super people!”

Billy rolled his eyes. “You got everything you have from super people.”

“Not true! I do have some things I brought here from my adoptive mother's house,” Tommy replied.

“Alright, most of your belongings, but my point still stands!”

“You know you're going to start getting stuff from the X-Men right? You might not live at the house, or be involved with the team, but our mom had been, and our uncle, and so was our granddad. They swapped sides a lot and mom decided to join the Avengers, but she still went here for a while. Or there. We aren't on campus. Our granddad wasn't always the best, but he was always friends with Professor X.

“We're like, third gen! The teachers, the X-Men, they know that! You're part of the family whether you're involved or not! They're going to give you presents and treat you nicely and stuff because of our family. Plus, apparently our half aunt almost married Scott's younger brother, so we're practically legally related. He's the one who gave me my phone! The team has enough money that they're totally fine with just giving stuff to people. If you let them know you need something, you'll find it on your bed the same day,” Tommy concluded.

“I don't even live at the school, how will they put it on my bed?” Billy teased. “Oh! We should get ice cream. That place is open, right?”

“My point stands. It will be on your bed by the time you go to sleep… and yeah, that place is always open except on holidays,” Tommy said, pulling his brother towards the shop. They both got two scoops, though Billy got chocolate and dark chocolate while Tommy got chocolate and hazelnut, and enjoyed the ice cream on the bench outside the shop.

“Who is our dad? Do you know? They didn't say in the meeting,” Billy said.

“I have no clue. Mom was married to Vision at the time, right?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah, but not my team's Vision, Jonas. She was married to the original one.”

“So either she did some weird cosmic shit, which is very possible, or she cheated on Vision, because I think we can both agree that the Robot Man did not impregnate our mother,” Tommy joked.

“I think the only way we can really know for sure is to ask her, wherever she is,” Billy said.

“If the superheroes have been spending thirteen years looking, I don't think we'll be able to find her,” sighed Tommy.

“You never know!” said Billy. “Maybe we're the only ones who can! We have a lot of questions that only she can answer, I'm not giving up on getting the information we need so easily.”

“I'm not giving up, I'm being realistic.”

“Well don't be, it doesn't suit us.”

They were both quiet for a moment as they finished their ice cream, thinking about how similar and so different they were.

“Was your hair auburn before your powers kicked in?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah. Afterwards, it just kept getting darker and darker until it was all black. I'm guessing you had the same thing happen but white instead?” Billy said.

Tommy nodded. “It's so weird how much we match, you know? With my white hair and your black hair, and my time warping and your space warping. We're like two halves or something. I don't like it.”

Billy smiled a little and leaned back. “At least we're together again, one whole person.”

\---

#### Update From the Warfront

The war was still going. There were battles here and there, but because of the people who were fighting in it, the war was not terribly destructive. More problematic was the rounding up of super people. Neither the Secret Avengers nor the X-Men could keep up with the government, and often people slipped through the cracks.

It had been four months since it began, but for everyone involved it was already tiring. The government didn't seem to be willing to let up or change their minds. And so, the fighting continued.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Did all of these teams need to meet at the same time? Nope! But it was so much chaos and so fun to write, it had to be done  
> \- I do not know the Runaways well, I tried my best  
> \- Billy not being able to be tracked by technology was something stated in one comic thing from around the time they were introduced, so I threw that in there, it's canon in this story. I can't think of anything in real canon that would conflict with it also, it's just too funny  
> \- I have a sister, I know how to write siblings  
> \- Poor Prof X now has to deal with both of these dramatic teens, I almost feel sorry for him except no  
> \- Puddle jumping is very fun, it was the most dirty I have ever been in my life, it was great  
> \- These two fools can't be subtle for the life of them tbh, they are, at their core, fools  
> \- Being realistic really doesn't suit them since they shouldn't exist in the first place  
> \- If you're reading this, hey, thanks! You get a sneak for next chapter! Field Day!


End file.
